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Journalism of Courage
The BJP 8216;8216;has never been and never will be a Hindu fundamentalist movement8217;8217; reiterated Atal Bihari Vajpayee in a recent interview to a Saudi-based daily. Fine words. But why is it that they8217;ve lost some of their shine already? Vajpayee8217;s disclaimer 8212; and pledge 8212; came only a couple of days after Vishwa Hindu Parishad international working president Ashok Singhal hailed Gujarat as a successful experiment, threatened that it would be repeated all over India, and got away with it. Singhal had unleashed similar hate speech at a meeting of the VHP8217;s Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal in Hardwar in June. There, too, he had marvelled at the post-Godhra carnage as 8216;8216;the first positive response of the Hindus to Muslim fundamentalism in 1,000 years8217;8217;. At that time, too, he was not held accountable for his inflammatory rhetoric.
Over time, the nation has come to expect no better from the VHP. No one has seriously accused the VHP of any modicum of responsibility or moderation. Singhal and Co have changed stances at will on the crucial temple issue, promising to abide by the court verdict one day, retracting that commitment the next. They have only ever been consistent in one thing 8212; their campaign against the minorities has been consistently malicious. No, the issue no longer is that the VHP continues to spew venom. It is, more, the impunity with which it is allowed to do so. Gujarat, and the nation, are still to recover from those horrible days, months, of death and violence. In such a fragile moment, Singhal8217;s fulminations are remarkable for going completely unchecked. In the days after his speech was reported, no BJP or NDA worthy has condemned it. There has been no move to bring home to Singhal and his ilk that they cannot make such seditious utterances again.
