As if India hadn't had enough to contend with already in the battle of minds for a secular state. Since the country's partition in 1947, the idea of India has been rooted in a state that is divorced from religious belief while embedded in an intensely religious nation. In contrast, Pakistan has celebrated the idea of a religious statehood, arguing that statecraft and religious fervour need not be separated according to the classic western thesis.

With 9/11, one of those terribly defining moments in history, it seemed as if the world led by Bush was going to seize the day and cut the boastfulness of Samuel Huntington down to size. Bush went to invade Iraq for no ostensible reason. Three years later with Osama bin Laden still on the loose and Iraq in the danger of being rent asunder by a civil war, the world is far more dangerous place, thanks to the hubris of the Bush administration.

To be fair, Bush's greatest advocates never accused him of being the greatest of communicators. For that he mixed his metaphors all the time -- so much so that even his wife was allowed to laugh at him publicly.

After 9/11 we felt uncomfortable when we heard his "if you're not with me you're against me" thesis, but we forgave his inappropriate speech in his house of stress. With "Islamic fascists," however, the all-American president has sunken to a new low.

And it is India, like nowhere else in the world, which will suffer the most for this new characterization. India, which should have been America's ally in a difficult world with the common ideas of democracy and liberty, is finding itself increasingly irritated at having to defend this foot-in-mouth emperor.

With 150 million Muslims, India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. India is also these days engaged in an unusually warm embrace with Bush & Co, which is pushing a nuclear energy agreement with India that would accord New Delhi a special place in the international nuclear order.

India and US are therefore "best friends" these days. So why then India is squirming so uncomfortably in the tight embrace of Uncle Sam? Instead of being in the thrall of the most powerful country in the world and instead of being delighted at the thought of having powerful friends in high places -- why does New Delhi retreat into embarrassed mumbling each time the Americans open their mouths to speak?

To understand India's dilemma, one must look at the horror of Iraq that refuses to go away. Then, when Mumbai blast took place in the beginning of July, gratuitous American spokesmen told India that New Delhi needed proof to discontinue the dialogue with Pakistan while most of India wanted to know what proof Bush & Co had before it invaded Afghanistan, leave alone Iraq.

Then came Bush's "Islamic fascists" remark. Only recently, even as India was shifting into high alert before its Independence Day on August 15, the US Embassy in Delhi put out an advisory, claiming that "al-Qaeda" could be prowling around crowded places in Delhi and Mumbai. Twenty-four hours later, Washington had rejected its own embassy's analysis.

In the meantime, the Indian government was scrambling around to cope with a threat that wasn't. Once it had been spoken, "al-Qaeda" began to acquire a life of its own, even though India knew better that the groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, masterminded by Pakistan's ISI, are more active in this part of the sub-continent. The biggest ever security operation in contemporary history was being mounted across the nation to deal with the fear of being unsafe only because America said so.

Increasingly, America's trigger-happy view of the world is beginning to bother India a great deal. The establishment still refuses all criticism until the nuclear deal gas gone through, hopefully by the end of the year. But the growing discomfort with Bush is becoming far too obvious in large parts of the country. The Indians are more and more wondering if the American embrace is not turning out to be a fatal attraction.

Bush's commentary, especially his latest "Islamic fascists" quip, has so concerned the Indian establishment that it is worrying as to how it can safeguard its own secular credentials. Indians, Hindus and Muslims alike, are increasingly agitated about the nature of the Indo-US relationship. If India's Congress government moves against Bush, the nuclear deal is at stake. If it doesn't, then it risks alienating a large section of people at home. So far India has refrained from telling America to think before she speaks. Perhaps it might be time to do so.

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.