BJP146;s historic obsessions

The worrying part is the victory of the BJP in six constituencies in Nagaland, far distant from the Hindu heartland where L.K. Advani sowed the seeds of hatred during the rath yatra to Ayodhya. No doubt, the ruling Congress in Nagaland had grown flabby because of the dirt it had accumulated through dishonest rule. But the BJP8217;s occupation of the territory that the Congress is vacating is ominous. The incumbency factor, both in Nagaland and Himachal, is only a partial explanation. Parochialism is coming to hold more sway. A pernicious thesis is diluting the faith in pluralism.

Former US President Clinton 8212; a great admirer of India 8212; has rightly warned that the seething undercurrents of sectarian violence have to be countered if the country wants to emerge as a global giant. But are the BJP and its hapless allies listening? During its five-year rule at the Centre, the BJP has divided more people along communal lines than the British did in their entire 150-year rule. When it comes to moving against the extremist Hindus, the BJP finds excuses for not taking any action. Vajpayee said in the Rajya Sabha that the law would deal with those who spoilt the atmosphere through their speeches. But when the members demanded action against Praveen Togadia, the VHP firebrand, the prime minister kept quiet.

There is not even a single instance to indicate that the BJP is not damaging the secular ethos of the country. Take V.D. Savarkar8217;s portrait in the Central Hall of Parliament, for instance. His patriotism is beyond question but so is his connection with the extremists in the Hindu Mahasabha. Sardar Patel, whom even Narendra Modi regards as his hero, has stated in a letter to Jawaharlal Nehru about the plot to kill Mahatma Gandhi: 8216;8216;It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that hatched the conspiracy and saw it through.8217;8217; Significantly, my request to Speaker Manohar Joshi to hang the portrait of Bhagat Singh in the Central Hall was not even considered.

Even after one year of the Gujarat carnage, not one conspirator has been named. The state government talks about the inquiry into the Godhra massacre in which 59 people, including Ram sewaks from Ayodhya, were killed. But there is no sensitivity about what has happened to the investigation into the carnage at Naroda-Patiya where 89 Muslims were burnt to death.

One massacre was considered more equal than the other. In Godhra, of the 123 accused, three obtained bail and POTA was applied, primarily to block bail. In the Naroda-Patiya case, of the 68 accused, all but three have obtained bail. They have been prosecuted under criminal law. The police got the properties of all 51 absconders in the Godhra case attached but not in the case of any absconder in Naroda-Patiya. The Naroda-Patiya investigation has changed hands three times: the Naroda police took it up first, then it went to Assistant Commissioner P.N. Barot and, finally, two months later, the Detection of Crime Branch, already burdened with 40 post-Godhra cases, was handed over the investigation.

This biased approach fits in with Vajpayee government8217;s plea before the Supreme Court to vacate the stay on any kind of activity on any part of the 67 acres acquired land in Ayodhya to stop those who wanted to build the temple around the site where the Babri Masjid stood before demolition. How could the government do so when the original case on the disputed site was pending? In fact, Justice J.S. Verma, one of the five judges who upheld the judicial remedy, has said in an interview that the judgment was unambiguous that no part of land can be handed over by the government to anyone before a final settlement of the dispute.

What is, in fact, more relevant is the directive by the Allahabad High Court to the Archaeological Survey of India to excavate the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya within a month. The purpose indicated is to find out whether there was a Ram temple at the site and whether the mosque was constructed after the demolition. The Muslims should welcome the judgement because they have said many a time before that they would withdraw the claim on the Babri Masjid site if it was proved that the structure was raised after destroying the temple. Their case is that the Islam does not allow the construction of a masjid after demolishing a religious place.

Really speaking, the Babri Masjid is not the problem. The dispute has come in handy to the Hindutva forces to spread their pernicious philosophy. Rajiv Gandhi, naive as he was, opened the locks at the disputed monument to placate Hindu opinion. This was his way of countering the annoyance of the Hindus over the Shah Bano case regarding the maintenance of divorced Muslim woman. But the country is left grappling with the issue of how to defeat the Hindutva forces which threaten to destroy India8217;s pluralistic society. The Babri Masjid dispute is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is the Sangh Parivar8217;s agenda to usher in a Hindu Rashtra.