Opinion A reports ripples
The resurfacing of Pravin Togadia and his vituperative rhetoric on national television after being incommunicado for the last five years...
The resurfacing of Pravin Togadia and his vituperative rhetoric on national television after being incommunicado for the last five years seems to have signalled the resumption of strident Hindutva as the core of the Sangh Parivars future strategy. The Liberhan report blames the RSS for running a parallel government that supervised meticulously all details in the events leading to the demolition of the Babri Masjid. It,with its offshoots the Bajrang Dal,the VHP and so on,collectively created an immense and awesome entity with a shrewd brain,a wide encompassing sweep and the crushing strength of a mob. These pseudo-moderates,which includes Vajpayee,Advani and Joshi,portrayed the benign face of the Ayodhya campaign and gave false reassurances to the courts,the people,and the nation as a whole. Loquacious and eloquent,Justice Liberhan was expressively explicit in his indictment.
Finally the so-called pseudo-secularists,those who have been at the receiving end of the BJPs favourite description of their opponents,have been given a new retort: pseudo-moderates.
But the question is: can the report help stop the internecine war amongst various avatars of the RSS family?
The domineering attitude of the RSS has been dealt a body-blow; the resurgence of the BJPs Delhi gang of four along with a reprieve for Advani seems imminent. It could be a long wait for Marathi manoos Nitin Gadkari. After a gap of 18 months the BJP has reason to re-assert itself and demand the RSS stop the repeated public humiliation of its top brass. The question uppermost on everyones mind is can the much-maligned and misused Mandir-Masjid card be encashed yet again at the polling booth?
Justice Liberhan certainly exceeded his brief. To good effect,he used his 17-year-old brush to paint the now defunct Muslim bodies as culpable as well,for their failure to provide leadership. These outfits were no match for the well-oiled,cash-rich,power-embedded swayamsevaks. Presently the ire among many Muslims is directed at the clean chit given to former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. Madhav Godbole,the then-home secretary confirmed that the Centre was ready to implement Presidents Rule but the higher-ups flinched and spluttered in a state of shock.
Chastened and wiser,various voices within the Indian Muslim community are in favour of exercising caution. The experience of hindsight shows that minority rabble-rousing becomes little more than a complement to a strident communal reaction from Hindutva votaries. Wounded and humbled since the last Lok Sabha elections,when regional and sectarian political parties were negated,the timing of the Babri Masjid demolition report provides another opening to fringe parties to occupy the centre of the political discourse. Having traversed the political landscape and been rewarded with Rajya Sabha nominations from both the Janata Dal and the Congress and now back as the new SP mascot the firebrand orator Maulana Obaidullah Azmi,is,with Abu Azmi,expected to stoke fires in an effort to urge Muslims back to the SP,which they had abandoned after the Kalyan Singh cohabitation fiasco.
Remember,all parties know that the 17 per cent minority vote holds the key to future power in UP,so fragmented is the polity. Since 1992,a lot of churning has taken place; with newer,younger voters the chances of polarising communities on chauvinistic agendas have become rather limited. The personal,mutually beneficial alliance and then the public break-up of Mulayam Singh and Kalyan Singh will haunt both the backward leaders for a long time. Politicians can try to brazenly re-invent,refurbish and repackage themselves,but voters are unlikely to be fooled again easily.
If the Congress vacillates in taking on the Babri demolition culprits,along with further legal procrastination,the recent goodwill could evaporate just as quickly. Any obfuscation like a task force or committee can only delay justice. The absolute promise of never subjecting the country ever again to a similar outrage can gain credence only if the law of the land prevails.
And demonising the countrys main opposition party as a whole,even if many of its members were guilty of aiding and abetting the mosque demolition,is no different from blaming all members of one community for the acts of a few. Since the ghost of Babri cannot name the destroyers,Lois McMasters famous quote,the dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them, should provide guidance to the state to do its duty.
The writer is chairman of the editorial board at the Kanpur-based Urdu newspaper Daily Siyasat Jadid
express@expressindia.com
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