Wikileaks India: Congress panders to Islamists, Digvijay Singh told US envoys

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Digvijay Singh told US diplomats in 2007 that the Congress was embracing "soft Hindutva" and pandered to Muslim fundamentalists. Also, he said it was irrelevant if Manmohan Singh survived as prime minister and the party would accept anyone chosen by Sonia Gandhi as premier.

The cable comes in the face of Singh's recent demand for Rahul Gandhi to become prime minister.

In a meeting with US diplomats on May 22, 2007, the senior Congress leader known for his proximity to 10 Janpath, told them that the Congress party was faring badly in elections "because it was reluctant to embrace its own progressive and secular ideology", the cable sent on May 24 said.

Singh complained that the Congress had "backed away from confronting communalism and casteism and this was hurting the party at the polls". Singh said caste and religious identities were losing their political usefulness and that Congress would benefit from this ongoing social change if it embraced an uncompromising position on these issues.

Instead, Singh lamented, the party embraced "soft Hindutva" and pandered to Muslim fundamentalists, while regional parties continue to undermine Congress and its vote blocs.

"Singh maintained that it is irrelevant whether Manmohan Singh survives as prime minister, emphasizing that the Gandhi-Nehru family is the heart and soul of Congress and party members will accept anyone as prime minister if he/she is selected by Sonia Gandhi," the cable said.

The cable, analyzing three years of the first UPA government, came at a time when the Congress was faring badly in a string of elections. The Congress had faced electoral defeats in Bihar, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. The Congress was "increasingly presenting a picture of a party in the doldrums", the cable said.