The silent majority8217;s moral dilemma

The Prime Minister goes to Gujarat and gives a clean chit to Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, from the RSS hard core, despite his failure to protect the missionaries. The Home Minister visits Maharashtra and prostrates before Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray to let him allow the Pakistani cricket team to play, not in Mumbai but in Chennai and elsewhere.

Neither did the Prime Minister have the courage to dismiss the Gujarat government for its complicity in the attacks on Christians, as the Central Minorities Commission has brought out in its interim report. Nor did the Home Minister have the guts to even warn Thackeray that enough was enough and that the Centre would be forced to take action against him and his Shiv Sena-led government. The BJP did not even threaten to withdraw its support. The result is that the Gujarat Chief Minister says that there was much ado about nothing and the RSS parivar burns two more churches.

Bal Thackeray condescends to issue a statement, not to express regret but to say that he has agreed to 8220;suspend8221; the agitation in deference to the Prime Minister8217;s wishes.

What face 8212; or authority 8212; does the BJP-led government at the Centre have if its resolve to fight communalist-cum-criminals boils down to a surrender? Advani goes on to say that no one from the RSS can be a 8220;criminal8221;. The Orissa police have already held the Bajrang Dal for the killing of Graham Staines and his children. Is the Home Minister8217;s observation based on his bias in favour of the RSS parivar or some factual information? The real reason is his lack of will to take action.

The VHP, which has been indulging in antisocial activities and targeting the minorities from December 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished, and the Bajrang Dal, which has been singling out Christians from December 1998, have become emboldened because there has been no punishment administered to either of them. During the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, the Congress government of Narasimha Rao was mixed up with communal elements.

Now the BJP is equivocal because of the RSS involvement. How can the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, both ardent followers of the RSS, be expected to act against members of the parivar.

Even if one were to assume that the BJP is a liberal wing of the RSS, the BJP cannot take on the RSS. The Bangalore session of the BJP only underlined the fact: liberals in the party can deliver sensible speeches but cannot make them good because they have little support at the grassroots, where the RSS is supreme. BJP chief Kushabhau Thakre may have retraced his steps to concede that there cannot be any backseat driving by the party. The Prime Minister may have said that the government8217;s job is to govern.

But these statements make no diffe- rence. The fact is that the BJP government is too indulgent towards the Hindu zealots to take action, lest it displease the Hindutva followers and dependable voters. The Home Minister, whe-ther he belongs to a liberal or hardline group in the BJP, has not been doing his job properly to instill confidence among the minorities. Muslims are depressed and demoralised and the Christians are being put in line. That is what Hindutva is all about.

In fact, during the 10-month rule of the BJP-led coalition, the country8217;s plural fabric has been coming apart. Communal forces have been let loose. The RSS parivar has released the genie of Hindu fundamentalism from the bottle. It is no use telling it to behave or to get back into the bottle. The philosophy of accommodation and tolerance that has inspired the nation is in tatters. The peace has been disturbed deliberately.

All fundamentalists, whatever their religion, are coming to the fore. Of course, the RSS is in the lead because it sees in the BJP regime an opportunity to Hinduise the society for a favourable political fallout.

In fact, the consciousness of identity and its assertiveness has spread so widely among Hindus that every writer, every artist and every thinker is wary of what he writes, draws or says. Freedom and spontaneity 8212; the two traits for creativity are under pressure. The RSS parivar has been casting Hinduism into such a tight mould that it is getting defaced and defamed.

Hinduism is pluralistic, compassionate and accommodative, it can neither be monolithic nor restricted to one discipline, it is a way of life. This is its strong point, which the RSS is determined to defeat.

What is worse is that most Hindus, particularly the intellectuals, have begun to reconcile with what the BJP-cum-RSS is doing. They failed the country during the Emergency 1975-77 and they are failing it again. Their awareness of what is right and the desire to act according to what is right have been suppressed by fear or threat. They are mere opportunists.

Yet it is the duty of Hindus, who constitute 82 per cent of population, to speak out not only against the violence against minorities but also against indignities within the society. The community, on the whole, may be unhappy over what is being done to Christians or others who are less in numbers. But the Hindus should not stifle their voice. By doing so, many will be exposing themselves to the goondaism of chauvinism. This is the price they have to pay to protect their religion and the country against pseudo-Hindus. If they remain quiet today, they will lose the right to speak tomorrow.