quot;Rath yatra clashes were thunderclaps portending the stormquot;

MUMBAI, Aug 8: There was a sudden spurt of attendance at Friday namaaz in mosques in Mumbai after the first phase of the riots interpre...

MUMBAI, Aug 8: There was a sudden spurt of attendance at Friday namaaz in mosques in Mumbai after the first phase of the riots interpreted by Hindu fanatics as ominous8230;they replied with their ingenious maha-aartis ostensibly to protest against namaaz on the streets and the calling of azaan from mosques, though both were going on for years and were, perhaps, no more than minor irritants8230;The maha-aartis, begun on December 29, 1992, kept adding to the communal tension and endangering the fragile peace which had been established.8221;

8212; Report of the Srikrishna Commission

And into this cauldron stepped Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray like 8220;a veteran general leading his troops.8221; BJP leaders might be relieved that that the commission has let them off and fixed the blame squarely on the Sena but that might come as cold comfort once they begin reading the fine print.

For it was the BJP8217;s idea that maha-aartis be held after the first phase of riots and thecommission has held it guilty of helping create the situation for a major conflagration.

8220;Time and again,8221; says Justice Srikrishna, in the preamble to his report under the title The Build-up, 8220;the Hindutvawadis raised a shrill cry for construction of a temple at Ayodhya at the very place where the Babri Masjid stood 8230; stoutly resisted by Muslims 8230; the issue became contentious and landed itself in the courts.8221; It smouldered with the judiciary 8230; till the 8217;90s 8220;when the BJP revived it to regain lost political mileage.8221;

The commission indicts Union Home Minister L K Advani: 8220;The rath yatra of Shri L K Advani, leader of the BJP, refocussed attention on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute. The inevitable clashes and minor cases of rioting which took place along the route of the rath yatra 8230; were the distant thunderclaps portending the storm to come.8221;

Justice Srikrishna has been as harsh about the BJP8217;s subsequent programmes. 8220;From about July 1992, the BJP orchestrated itscampaign for the construction of a temple at Ayodhya by holding Ram Paduka processions, chowk sabhas and meetings8230; Not only were these occasions used for exhorting Hindus to unite, but some speeches and slogans on such occasions were downright communal, warning Muslims that dissent 8230;. would be an act of treachery for which they would be banished from the country.8221;

Justice Srikrishna says: 8220;Though ostensibly religious, the Ram Paduka processions had less of religion and more of politics. Under the attractivegarb of advocating one8217;s own religion, the Hindutvawadis politicised the issue and tried to preempt the issue pending in the court of law by their strident clamour for the construction of Lord Sri Rama8217;s temple at Ayodhya.8221;

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So there was much sabre-rattling by the Hindu majority with its 8220;new-found identity8221; and the Muslim minority with its 8220;heightened sense of insecurity8221; as the clamour by the Sangh Parivar for a temple became more and more strident, according to the report.

Once the mosquewas demolished, Justice Srikrishna believes that the BJP should have left it at that. Spontaneous Muslim protests by 8220;leaderless8221; mobs should have been left to the police to deal with as a law-and-order situation, he says. Instead, 8220;it is unfortunate that even at this stage the activists of the BJP jumped into the fray and escalated communal passions.8221;

For it was after the first phase of the riots in December that the BJP decided to organize maha-aartis.8221; And the Shiv Sena was waiting.