Indians See a Gift in NSA Leaks

A month after the first revelations by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, the affair continues to resonate around the world. To the list of 38 countries whose diplomatic missions in the U.S. were, according to documents leaked by Snowden, targeted for surveillance by the NSA, one can now add a second list, almost as long. These are the countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America that in the last week have received requests from Snowden for asylum and that risk running afoul of the U.S. government. India is on both lists, and the response of its government to both developments has been as insipid as a random sample of Internet debris.

Last week, India's Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that its mission in Moscow had received a letter from Snowden, and that his request for asylum had been turned down. There was nothing very surprising about this, as India has no clear policy on asylum-seekers and, other than the Dalai Lama, currently hosts no prominent political fugitives. What was most upsetting to many Indians, however, was their government's passivity and lack of indignation when it came to taking a stance on this latest episode of -- to borrow the title of Tim Weiner's recent article -- "A Long History of Untruthiness by U.S. Intelligence."