There's certainly an argument that can be made that virtually everything connects to government or public affairs in some way, but this is literally and directly discussing the actions of government directed at people who are, overtly, trying to provide information about the actions of government to the public so that the public can effectively supervise the actions of government. The connection to government is not distant, indirect, or of dubious centrality to the issue.
> HN was initially very friendly to discussion of Wikileaks when it was revealing the misdeeds of the Bush administration and foreign governments.
Initially, WikiLeaks was itself an example of a novel phenomenon, which is right there in black and white in the guidelines as an exception to the general rule that most political, crime, and sports stories are off topic.
HN is not, and does not want to be, a general-focus news channel. There are plenty of those, most people in HN have their preferences for those, but HN is something else, by design.