Hurdles in rapprochement

Again, BJP chief L K Advani said at Karachi that Gujarat riots were a national shame but did nothing beyond when he was even Deputy Prime Minister. Modi is still there and Advani continues to be his ardent admirer. Not only that, the Muslims in general and the

riot-victims in particular still suffer from the state government's deliberate policy of discrimination and denial. Even the rehabilitation is being done primarily by voluntary agencies. Something has gone wrong with Gujarat. The state where Mahatma Gandhi, an apostle of Hindu-Muslim unity, was born and where his Sabarmati Ashram still radiates with amity is today the most communally-oriented place. It is unbelievable that the state which touched the sublime heights of pluralism during the Gandhi's Dandi Salt March to oust the British, is in the depths of hatred which Advani spread when he led a rathyatra from Somnath temple to Ayodhya. In fact, his rath was the beginning of assaults on India's secular polity. It sowed the seeds of hatred. The nettle of communalism was the natural growth. We have become prey to triviality and an inner shame and cowardice.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

I do not think that the BJP would ever apologise. Advani had to pay heavily for commending Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah in Pakistan. How can Advani, or

for that matter, any BJP leader say 'sorry' to Muslims who constitute the party's bete noire. After all, it is the same party, which demolished the Babri masjid and faces criminal charges. According to Justice Nanavati, who wrote the 1984 anti-Sikh riots report, there was no difference between what happened in Delhi and Gujarat. In the first, Sikhs were the victims, in the second, Muslims. At both places he found ample evidence to infer that some politicians and the police looked the other way when the crimes were committed. The pattern was the same: the state was on the side of rioters and the entire killing and looting was systematically organized and executed. I only hope that Nanavati does not produce another wishy-washy report as he did in the case of Delhi riots, condoning the complicity of the top and picking up foot soldiers for punishment.

Manmohan Singh carries the sins of his predecessors in the Congress. Still he must apologise for Bombay riots because the Congress was in power both at the centre and in the state at that time. When the inquiry into the riots was ordered, the Congress was in power. The Shiv Sena-BJP coalition took over in March 1993 and included bomb blasts in the terms of inquiry. Judge Srikrishna held Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackerey guilty for whipping up communal frenzy through his writings, pronouncements and directives. The report recalled his famous press interview where he had given a call to throw out Muslims. Srikrishna pointed out the nexus between politicians and police in killing and looting. Thackerey remained unrepentant and defiant. He not only rejected the report but called the judge biased, a usual reaction of the guilty.

After the report, Advani on behalf of the central government said that there was 'no justification for any action against Thackerey'. I remember that when the killings in Mumbai did not abate for three days, some of us, senior journalists, met the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao to express our concern. He had no doubt about the culpability of the Shiv Sena and Bal Thackerey. But when asked: "Why do not you ban Shiv Sena and arrest Bal Thackerey as you did in the case of RSS and Advani when the Babri Masjid was abolished? Rao gave a measured reply: "I cannot ban Shiv Sena because it is a political party". As regards Thackerey, he said: "Wait". I waited vainly during his entire tenure of five years.

Whenever I asked in the Rajya Sabha about the action taken, Advani, by then Home Minister, would say that the matter was with the State government. It came to be known subsequently that Prime Minister Mrs. Indira

Gandhi's Principal Secretary, P C Alexander, the then Maharashtra governor, was sitting over the report. Significantly, after retirement, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the Shiv Sena giving him crucial votes. That we have not been able to cleanse India's body politics of communalism is my biggest worry because it is coming in the way of normalising relations with Islamabad. The fear of maulvi in Pakistan and the RSS in India is still dominating politics in the two countries. The governments on both sides appear to be afraid of them to take bold steps towards rapprochement.

Seeing three to four lakh people assembling at the Wagah border on the 14-15th August night was a heartening experience. I felt all the more elated because we were only 12 persons when the first candle was lighted on the iron gates between India and Pakistan a decade ago. The sneering remark at that time was that the mombattiwalas were foolhardy to believe that their endeavour would bring people from both sides nearer.

Today people-to-people contact has come to be the only mantra, which even the diehard on both sides see working. Thousands of Indian people have visited Pakistan and thousands of Pakistanis India. There has never been such an emotional upsurge as is now.

Had the two governments allowed people-to-people contact to expand by liberalising visa facilities and lessening police surveillance the limited atmosphere of goodwill would have spread all over. Unfortunately, both Delhi and Islamabad have begun dragging their feet. Imtiaz Ahmed, a top Pakistani journalist, was not given a visa to join us on the border. Nor was the famous Shoba Mudgil to sing in Pakistan. Ministers on both sides are speaking out of turn. I do not know what can be done about Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed who said the other day at a seminar in Lahore that he would prefer to go to India in a tank. He and persons like him are the core problem.

Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.