India's security is not an election issue. Yet, it found its way into the electoral rhetoric through the prime minister's address in Pehowa in Haryana when he pointed to the instability in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal and its likely impact on India. To his listeners, however, Manmohan Singh was preaching his party's line on fighting terror without harassing any particular community. But for a nation facing a crisis on its western border and a tumultuous situation in the south, it is curious that the concerted efforts of both the government and the Opposition should be to keep the issue of security invisible on the electoral radar. This is perhaps because Mumbai has been tried as an election strategy in the assembly polls, and was found to backfire. And the government, now on a circuitous route to nailing the assassins, does not want the nation at its back.   read more »