Advani stands taller

Union Home Minister L.K. Advani deserves to be complimented for finally gathering the political courage to call a spade a spade. His description of the communal riots in Gujarat, following the horrific murder of innocents at Godhra, as “unfortunate” and an “aberration” will be welcomed by all right thinking persons among all communities. However, the impact of Advani’s expression of regret would have been altogether different if these words had been given expression to at the time of the Gujarat violence. Coming today, on the eve of an election, they sound far too politically motivated to be genuine. Yet, one must give Advani the benefit of the doubt. No thinking person should be criticised for questioning his own assumptions and showing the courage to rethink.

Advani’s rethink gives added weight to the initial expression of shame and concern on the part of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. It is unfortunate that the two senior-most leaders of the BJP did not have the political courage and wisdom to join forces and seek the removal of the Narendra Modi government and the imposition of a spell of President’s Rule in Gujarat. Instead, Advani and his supporters in the BJP defended Modi’s handling of the law and order situation at the time and some BJP leaders went to the extent of defying Vajpayee to defend Modi. This will remain a shameful chapter in the recent history of the ruling party. For this reason it is good that Advani has finally decided to make a clean breast of things and own up to his government’s and party’s failure in dealing with this challenge in a manner that would have served the nation better. Hopefully Gujarat chief minister Modi will also now fall in line and admit that his government failed in its constitutional duty of protecting the lives and property of the citizens of the state and has failed in punishing those appointed to uphold law and order for not doing their job.

The response of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad is along expected lines. However, it is important that the rank and file of BJP understand why the party’s tallest leaders have been forced to express their regret at the communal conflagration in Gujarat. It is wrong to believe that Advani’s comments are a slur on the Hindu community. Nor has he condoned the role of anti-national and anti-social elements within the Muslim community. Far from it. First of all no community is ever to blame as a whole for the wrong acts and thinking of a few elements in it. Second, anti-national and anti-social elements from both communities were responsible for both Godhra and the reaction to it. Third, an elected government is duty-bound to protect the life and property of every citizen and when its functionaries fail in this duty they must be punished. Finally, a policy of “an eye for an eye”, as Mahatma Gandhi taught us, leaves us all blind. Hence, even when faced with grave provocation, as indeed the nation was at Godhra, the correct response of responsible citizens and government functionaries would be to ensure that the law and order machinery and the security forces do their job and the law takes its course in bringing the guilty to book. No individual or private organisation can take the law into their own hands. That is what happened in Gujarat. It was time the home minister of India accepted this truth and so it is good that Advani has finally done it. We compliment him.