A cable of 2005 states “India’s over 150 million Muslim population is largely unattracted to extremism. Separatism and religious extremism have little appeal to Indian Muslims, and the overwhelming majority espouse moderate doctrines.”

Established in 2006 and described as “an international non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret and classified media from anonymous sources”, WikiLeaks has sent shockwaves around the world through disclosures of conduct by governments, their representatives or senior functionaries that could by some be regarded as “unethical”. Although the stated mandate of the organisation was “primarily to expose oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet Union, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East”, of the classified documents released, 2,50,000 pertain the lone superpower - the USA. Of these, over 3,000 are cables originated by the US Embassy in Delhi.

While some of the documents that contain communication on diplomatic channels may be of historical value, their contents could not only be embarrassing but could have the potential to damage relationships, weaken strategic alliances or partnerships and create trust deficit between friendly nations. Understandably, the US thought it fit to forewarn India about the implications of WikiLeaks for the rapidly growing Indo-US strategic partnership.

Deleterious effects apart, some of the cables originated by the US Embassy in Delhi provide different perspectives to some long standing issues related to India’s internal security. A cable of 2005 states “India’s over 150 million Muslim population is largely un-attracted to extremism. Separatism and religious extremism have little appeal to Indian Muslims, and the overwhelming majority espouse moderate doctrines.” Undoubtedly a comforting thought, but the US perception runs counter to the belief of large sections of the Indian polity and media. A cable originated from London states “Terror training camps, though not directly run by the Pakistan government, continue to operate along India-Pakistan border creating potential for conflict with India and instability in the region”. Other parts of the communication clearly reflect concern of the British government about the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and the imperative need for its resolution not only to improve internal security situation in India but more importantly to obviate the possibility of the large population of Pakistani Muslims in Britain falling prey to the lure of jihad. As India is sensitive to third party interest in Kashmir, it regards the British observation as “unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of the nation”. As for jihadi designs against India, it is clear from the cables released that the Indian intelligence agencies were quite aware that some terrorist groups were actively exploring options for targeting India with bio-terrorism such as anthrax – a chilling thought indeed! Such information however, was never made available in the public domain in India.

A study of cables also reflects a dichotomy in perceptions amongst the political and bureaucratic leadership of the country of the gravity of internal security threats and the approach that the nation ought to adopt. The most startling of the revelations were the serious differences between the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and the National Security advisor M.K. Narayanan on the approach the nation ought to adopt against Pakistan. The latter was clearly in favour of a hard line approach. The US diplomatic community in Delhi was of the view that the Indian government “did not focus on the Naxal threat with the intensity it devoted to jihadi terrorists”. This was in contradiction to the public acknowledgment on February 06, 2010 by the Prime Minister wherein he equated Naxalism with jihadi terrorism describing the two as “the biggest threat to country’s internal security”. But perhaps the most shocking revelation was the statement made to the US Ambassador Timothy Roemer by the Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi that “radicalised Hindu terrorist groups are a greater threat than the support of some Indian Muslims to extremist outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba”.

Hopefully WikiLeaks may help narrow divergent perceptions of the internal security paradigms!