Sadhvi146;s politics

The Sangh Parivar and the BJP seem to have a spot of bother with Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and the stink that has now reached them. They cannot deny that she was connected to the ABVP, the BJP8217;s student wing. They also cannot deny the photographs, showing some of them sitting close to the Sadhvi, in circulation. But they can distance themselves from her, and articulate reasons for that distance. There is a tendency to use instruments nurtured and then discard or disown them when they embarrass. Those that possess the mastery of this art use and throw away their agents confidently. Those that do not, go into a state of denial. And nothing is more transparent than that, because the silence tells, or else conflicting signals emanate from those in question. That is what explains why some can call her arrest a political conspiracy to malign 8220;Hindus8221;, and yet, evidently, distance themselves from the accused.

Elements of the Parivar are asking now why terror is being linked to a 8220;particular religion8221;. It is not 8212; but that is another matter altogether. The Parivar should ask that question of itself, happy as it has been with the anti-minority overtones in its own stress on security and the need for more stringent counter-terror mechanisms. Now it seems that the extremist fringe of the Hindu Right has embarked on a terror campaign itself, targeting, apparently, a single community that alone it identifies with terrorism. This is the issue which needs mature political engagement.

This newspaper has been emphasising the dangers of political denial on terror. Sections of the Congress had proved singularly incapable of admitting the truth. Now, the BJP and the Sangh seem to have a battle with truth on their hands. At the same time, the dangers of a communal fallout haven8217;t dissipated. Terror has dug roots in indigenous soil. That much is evident. We await the mature political leadership best fit to deal with that reality.