Parivar continues arson in Gujarat, CM says it’s "expression of feelings"

St Mary’s school in the Naroda locality of the city was vandalised today by alleged Bajrang Dal activists. Coke and Pepsi bottles were strewn around the campus, and slogans were raised against institutions perceived as “spreading foreign culture”. St Mary’s trust secretary Matthew Kutty, caught off-guard, could do little but lodge a police complaint and let the law take its own course.

Neither the political establishment nor the police are willing to recognise this as a series of planned attacks against anything foreign. “It would bedifficult to pinpoint any particular organisation. We are treating it as a law and order problem,” says C P Singh, DGP (in-charge). The police have so far arrested 11 people.

The chief minister is less ambiguous. “You cannot ignore the feeling of Swadeshi ingrained in the heart of every Gujarati. The violence is an expression of that innermost feeling.” He did, however, “condemn” the violence and promise that law and order would be maintained.

Patel’s stand may have been prompted by support from NRI associations. “We (in Gujarat) have our own resources and we are not afraid of sanctions,” he says. The area is home to the largest number of NRIs, and reportedly has the most number of bank deposits per square kilometre in India. The donations have been pouring in, including one from the NRI Association of Kutch to the prime minister, thanking him for making the border district “safe from the enemy across with the magnificent bomb explosion in Pokharan.”

Union Home Minister L K Advani, Member ofParliament from Gandhinagar — around which most of the acts have been committed — is yet to take note of, or comment on the violence. Even Ahmedabad MP Harin Pathak has been keeping a low profile. The mandarins of the born-again Swadeshi, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), supported the attack on Pepsi and Coke delivery trucks as well as the burning down of the Baskin Robbins outlet in Gujarat. Calling it “an upsurge of the swadeshi spirit,” Murlidhar Rao, national organiser of the SJM, an RSS outfit, claimed that this protest could not be a “civilised one” if certain countries ostracised India and imposed economic sanctions.

“We have always favoured that the government adopt a discriminatory policy while dealing with multinational companies. If they are not sensitive towards Indian concerns, how can they (MNCs) expect reciprocity?” he said. “What has been happening in Gujrat is an upsurge and reflects the full intensity of our protest. By imposing sanctions on India, the USA has tried to ostraciseus,” he said.

A spokesman at the VHP headquarters in Delhi said it supported the attacks but declined to elaborate saying “no senior leader was available”.

This loose-ended state of affairs — no official condemnation from the leadership — seems to have given some destructive elements a virtual free hand. While the school attack may even be the result of rivalry between board members, the point is that issues are becoming blurred and merging into one.

And, while there is no clear identification of those behind the violence, the incidents continue to occur. Consider this: In the past eight days, three cola trucks have been looted and burnt, one Baskin Robbins ice cream parlour has been gutted, two mega musical shows — with Pepsi and Coke as sponsors — cancelled, and one rain dance sponsored by Pepsi was held without the obligatory sponsors’ banners. That’s just on record. A few restaurants have stopped stocking Coke and Pepsi, and organisers of public events are thinking twice before approachingMNCs for sponsorship.

For their part, Coke and Pepsi are being forced to take things lying down. After withdrawing from star-studded events, including the Pepsi Dance Connection featuring Indi-pop purveyors Shaan, Sagarika, and Usha Uthup, the heat they are feeling is more than just the Ahmedabad summer.

The saving grace for Coke, however, is that it still has two other brands — Thums Up and Limca — that are seen as being essentially Indian.

Pepsi’s Deepak Jolly says his company has postponed only one event — the Pepsi Dance Connection — indefinitely. He says, “And it has not been under any pressure from VHP or Bajrang Dal.” Sanjay Nindrajoj, vice-president (operations), Gujarat, adds, “We do not want to create further problems for organisers.”

With Thursday’s attack on St Mary’s school shifting the focus from MNCs to institutions `dealing in Western culture’, the fear psychosis has suddenly acquired a wider base.