Will the Congress join battle?

The BJP’s ideology must be fought directly. It must be realised that the battle is not between BJP’s hard Hindutva and Congress’s soft Hindutva. It is Hindutva vs secularism, obscurantism vs rationalism. The battle is for upholding the equal dignity of all citizens, whatever their religion.

To claim, as the BJP chief does, that by advocating Hindutva it is following in the footsteps of Swami Vivekananda, is calumny. That great soul warned ‘‘No man, no nation, can hate others and live.’’ Let the BJP not muddy by its communally divisive slogans the great stirrings of Hinduism as preached by Vivekananda who wished for all religions in India to make progress, so that ‘‘we gather all these flowers and bind them with a twine of love, making a wonderful bouquet of worship.’’

Another divisive plan by the sangh parivar is to harp on the slogan of cultural nationalism, but without defining what it means. If it is being suggested that there must be the same way of dressing, eating and worship, it will run counter to the mandate of the Third Committee of Commission on Human Rights which ‘‘urged states to ensure that their political and legal systems reflected the multicultural diversity within their societies.’’ It affirmed that intellectual dialogue enriches the understanding of human rights, and that there are benefits to be derived from encouraging international cooperation in culture.

The opposition must understand that it is only developmental programmes that will be able to defeat the challenge of Hindutva because as Vivekanand warned ‘‘the neglect of masses and the chronic poverty under which they were held down have been the main cause of Indian degradation’’.

The VHP has called a sadhus’ meet in February 2003 to frame plans on Ayodhya. This exercise is meant to queer the pitch for the assembly elections in 2003 and parliamentary elections in 2004. All secular parties and NGOs should give a fitting response with a massive demonstration, maybe in each state capital in mid-2003. The menace of Hindutva fascism must be met with the loud battle cry immortalised by anti-France heroic forces during the Spanish civil war: ‘No passaran’ (they shall not pass).