The real danger

In UP,it is not the VHP that is cause for worry,but the recent political signalling of BJP and SP.

In Ayodhya,at first glance,its an older moment. There is heavy security deployment and the Faizabad district administration has issued arrest warrants against VHP leaders. VHP chief Ashok Singhal has warned of dire consequences should the UP government stop the proposed chaurasi kos parikrama yatra,beginning August 25,to press for the construction of a Ram temple. Earlier,the state government had banned the yatra,citing an Allahabad high court directive to maintain status quo at the disputed site. The setting would appear to be ripe,then,for a replay of an older confrontation between the VHP and a government led by Maulana Mulayam of course,this time Netaji is the power behind the throne. But look again,and other things have changed too. This is no longer the troubled 1990s,when mandir became a rousing rallying cry and powerful symbol for a BJP-VHP mobilisation. Today,it is a fading story from long ago. Now,the BJP is desperately trying to regain a foothold in a state it has been repeatedly snubbed by electorally. And the weary,grey-bearded sants of the VHP have long replaced aandolan agitation with jan jagran awareness in their slogans,an unwitting admission of their shrunken appeal in an India that has changed dramatically outside their time warps.

So,on the eve of the scheduled beginning of the banned VHP yatra on Sunday,is there any reason to care,or worry? Yes and no. While it is true that the VHP is a spent force in UP,it may well succeed in some measure in its attention-seeking. In this,it is being helped not just by its sister organisation,the BJP,but also the SP government. In the countdown to 2014,both the ruling SP and the relegated BJP have taken steps that could be accused of stoking old faultlines. The BJP has parachuted key Modi lieutenant and an unreformed proponent of militant Hindutva,Amit Shah,to manage its poll prospects in the state. In turn,the SP government has taken a series of steps designed to keep militant Hindutva in business from announcing a blanket withdrawal of cases against Muslim terror accused,to the painting of the Durga Shakti Nagpal suspension issue as a matter primarily concerning a mosque.

For all its sound and fury,the VHP is a bit player in UPs unfolding drama. But both the lead players,the BJP and SP,must know that any attempt to turn the clock back for short-term electoral gain will mark them out as backward-looking parties of the past. In an aspirational and impatient India,this will not go unpunished.