Between The Lines
Heady mix of religion and politics
Gujarat and Punjab are the two states in India, which are ill at ease most of the time. Their problem is not economic but narrow thinking. Most of the blame lies on the governments because they do not allow people to rise above their limited and personal agenda dinned constantly into their ears. The fallout is that the two states are often absorbed in non-issues and suffer the consequences of mixing religion with politics.
When it comes to mixing politics with religion, none is more adept in it than Chief Minister Narendra Modi of Gujarat. It was generally felt that he would leave the 1992 killings aside and appeal to the voters in the name of development, which was impressive. Instead, he has reignited the embers of communal bias from the days of rioting.
Once again his agenda is Hindutva. He has told even the few Muslim leaders who have stuck to the BJP not to take part in campaigning in the state. On the other hand, the BJP has fielded no Muslim candidate in Gujarat. One Muslim in the party's top leadership has recalled how the minority leaders were also kept aside in the UP assembly elections a few months ago. This indicates how hypocritical was the BJP's support to Taslima Nasreen, an author from Bangladesh, for asylum in India.
If Modi manages to have a majority in the assembly election later this month -- reports are that he may scrape through -- he would have proved that he has brainwashed the Hindus in Gujarat to such an extent that despite their intelligence and dynamism, they have not been able to overcome the tug of religion. If after five years of pogrom where thousands of Muslims were murdered and looted and the bulk of the Hindu community remains unrepentant, it is more than a shame.
The situation is tragic because the Centre does not dare to move against Modi despite an array of reports of his involvement. The Supreme Court has also described him as Gujarat's Nero when the state was burning. The inquiry committee, sitting for the last
five years, has not yet given its report. It looks as if the commission does not want to say anything about Modi's role before the polls.
At least, the Central Election Commission, independent as it is, should do something. Granted it cannot take action against him, it can at least see that Modi's campaign follows the code of conduct in spirit as well. A campaign, however regional in character, cannot degenerate into a diatribe against the minority community through innuendos, or indirect references.
The commission has to ensure free and fair polls. That the BJP or Modi does not mention the Muslim community directly is a technicality. The whole tone and tenor of the campaign is against Muslims. The commission should be able to see through it. And what about the Muslims who are on the electoral rolls but cannot be traced?
Yet the most objectionable part of Modi's observation is his description of Gujarat as 'Hindutva laboratory.' The BJP also rules in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, apart from being the coalition partners in Bihar and Punjab. If Gujarat is a laboratory, the BJP should be pleased with the experiment of ethnic cleansing.
When does it duplicate it in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh? If the Centre remains a mute spectator in the case of Gujarat, what is the guarantee that the future of minorities in the other BJP-run cities would be in any way better?
The only redeeming factor is the media's relentless effort to expose Modi's doings and to insist on the state and the central governments to rehabilitate the Muslim victims at the very places where they lived before the planned rioting. NGOs are also another hope. They have done a tremendous job in the last few years. What depresses me is that the Gujaratis, outside Gujarat, have done little to put those living in the state to shame. Nor have they contributed to help rehabilitate the state Muslims. They too are Gujaratis.
Politics in Punjab has been caught for years in the battle that controls the gurdwaras, which have offerings of millions of rupees, with a retinue of employees who come in handy during elections. The ruling Akali Dal has never abandoned its control of gurdwaras, however indirect.
The management of the gurdwaras is by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), an elected body by the Electoral College of Sikhs. Yet it is an open secret that the Akalis have their own men elected to the SGPC and use the body as an instrument of
agitation for its demands -- political, religious or social. In return, the Akali Dal gives the SGPC members many facilities, a vicarious satisfaction to govern. Recently, the state government gave every member two gunmen and beacon light on their vehicles,
symbols of authority.
The installation by the SGPC of militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's portrait at the Golden Temple cannot be without the knowledge of the Akali Dal. Was the party
forced by the hardliners to do so or was it meant to frighten the Centre to cough up more money in the name of fighting terrorism? Such questions are difficult to answer. But they reflect a particular outlook, which had embraced Punjab by militancy some 10 years ago.
The hanging of the portrait on a wall of Sikh museum within the gurdwara cannot be considered a relic of unhappy past and dismissed lightly. Some in the Akali Dal and the SGPC may have a nefarious plan but they do not realise that both Sikhs and Hindus in Punjab have moved away from 1984 when the misunderstanding between the two was at its peak.
However, more debatable than the portrait is the text written below it: "The great Sikh General of the 20th century and the 14th chief of the Damdami Taksal, Sant Giani Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale, who along with numerous valiant Sikhs attained martyrdom onWednesday, the 6th June, 1984, fighting against the Indian Armed Forces for the honour and prestige of Sri Harminder Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib."
The wordings are unfortunate because the Indian armed forces represent India. The government and India are two separate entities. What happened at the Golden Temple was at the instance of the government, which can be defeated at the polls.
India is a different, independent, a cumulative entity, which has Sikhs as much citizens as people from other communities. What is unfortunate is that Bhindranwale representing fundamentalists has been honoured. This is yet another instance of mixing religion with politics. Punjab cannot progress unless the two are separated. Nor can it attract the much-needed investment until secularism prevails.
Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.
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