Faced with widespread disgust at its handling of what many have called a pogrom against Muslims in western Gujarat state, the pro-Hindu Indian government seems intent on laying on ''international terrorism'' the blame for the violence raging there for two months.

Consistent with this approach is the move to appoint a tough, trigger-happy policeman as "security adviser" to Narendra Modi, Gujarat's chief minister that many critics as well as allies of India's ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), want removed from his post.

This policeman, Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, is  and stressing the "Pakistani-terrorist nexus", however dubious.

This could have grave military consequences given the troop build-up in the India-Pakistan border, where a million soldiers face one another eyeball-to-eyeball.

The Vajpayee government and the BJP are increasingly adopting desperately partisan Hindu-fundamentalist measures to survive in power.

Their latest move is to appoint as speaker of the Lower House of Parliament Manohar Joshi, remembered for dismantling an official commission of inquiry into the terrible anti-Muslim violence that convulsed Mumbai after the demolition of the Ayodhya mosque in 1992.