By IANS,
Guwahati : Under attack from the Congress over the latest WikiLeaks revelations on him, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley said Monday that his alleged use of the word “opportunistic” with regard to Hindu nationalism was inconsistent with the party’s views.
“Use of the phrase used by a US diplomat such as ‘opportunistic’ is completely inconsistent to views expressed by us. It is inconsistent to our phraseology or ideology. It is neither our view nor our ideology,” Jaitley told reporters here.
Jaitley has been under constant attack from the Congress after WikiLeaks expose of a US diplomatic cable about his purported remark in relation to Hindu nationalism.
“Now that they are taking WikiLeaks so seriously, I hope that they take it equally seriously on the cash-for- vote,” Jaitley said, referring to the cable disclosures that alleged that votes were bought during the 2008 trust vote.
Asked about his reaction to Communications Minister Kapil Sibal slamming him for his remarks on Hindutva, Jaitley said the Congress will have a lot more to answer.
Jaitley, who is Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said he had already clarified that the leaked cable reflected his views on cross-border terrorism, illegal infiltration from Bangladesh and the unfair denial of US visa to the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but use of the word “opportunistic” in reference to nationalism or Hindu nationalism was neither his view nor language.
“We are strongly expressing nationalistic views and this has been our course of ideology from the beginning,” he said.
The BJP had attacked the government on the WikiLeaks expose on the cash-for-votes controversy relating to 2008 trust vote, leading to a statement from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussion on the issue in both houses of parliament.