BETWEEN THE LINES
Willing to Strike but Afraid to Wound
It was no ordinary meeting. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was in the chair, flanked by Home Minister L K Advani and Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi. The National Committee for the 50th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's martyrdom had been convened to suggest how to observe the 30th January when he was shot dead by a Hindu fanatic, Nathuram Vinayak Godse.
Strange, none of the former Prime Ministers was present although their chairs, with the tag 'Ex-PM', were reserved on either side of Vajpayee. No representative of the opposition parties, except Dr Manmohan Singh from Congress, was there.
A historian sitting next to me whispered that nobody bought books on the Mahatma any more. The thin attendance and the tenor of the meeting itself showed lack of interest. Persons like Sushila Nayyar and Usha Mehta, although furrowed by age, whipped up enthusiasm. But theirs was a flicker, the flame in the hearts of people seems to be lessening. They spoke with the same poise and poignancy, which distinguished them from others in the past. But what about the future? The BJP looked like upholding Gandhi an thoughts.
Vajpayee is persistent in paying homage to Gandhi's memory. Even when in opposition, he has attended all meetings of the committee. Maybe, this gives him the liberal streak, which has sustained him in his fight against the hard-liners in his party. The recent BJP session in Bangalore is one example. He made party chief Kushabau Thackrey, an RSS man, eat his words of criticism. But isn't Vajpayee somewhat late? The RSS - and the Hindutva supporters - are too entrenched and too strong.
The time to assert was before Advani took a rath yatra through Northern India and polarised even the countryside. Vajpayee kept quiet then. His defence was that the BJP was forced to do so. He made no bones in saying that had there been no mandal (reservations for the backward as announced by then Prime Minister VP Singh), there would have been no kamandal (a small vessel, which distinguishes the sadhus from others). Looking back, it is clear that both divided the society. VP Singh's step articulated casteism and Advani's rath yatra communalism. While VP Singh's reform stopped at benefiting the creamy layer in the backward. Advani's at making a tolerant society parochial. It will take many years for India to wash out the poison injected at that time in its body politics.
Vajpayee's silence harmed the nation still further when the Babri masjid was demolished at Ayodhya. Although upset, he did nothing to repair the damage inflicted on India's composite culture. I recall when I met him on December 7, one day after the demolition, I found him greatly disturbed. But his remark was: "Let the temple come up." This was no solution when the Muslims were worked up and the matter was pending before the court. He can, however, help now to get an early verdict by requesting the Supreme Court to order day-to-day hearing by a special court.
The distancing by the Vajpayee group from the RSS may be a tactical move. If there is any reality, it is that the BJP leaders in the government have realised that they cannot return to power if their party continues to have no support from the minorities and liberal Hindus. The BJP is itself to blame for this. It played the Hindu card to divide the society and get vote. In the process, the genie of fanaticism and fundamentalism has come out of the bottle. The realisation that the party has gone too far does not mean that the genie will oblige it and go back into the bottle.
The BJP spokesman had reacted saying that "there is a limit" when the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) went amuck and attacked Christians. VHP chief Singhal's criticism of Mother Teresa and Amartya Sen was resented rightly. But it is the philosophy of Hindu rashtriya that has given birth to the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. Maybe, they owe their existence to the strategy of blowing hot and cold at the same time. How can the BJP leaders disown the two when all, including the BJP, are members of the RSS parivar? True, Vajpayee is liberal. But he has also stood in knickers in a rally held in the presence of the RSS chief. Differences between the hard-liners and others are there but they are no more than a tension within a family.
The point to worry about is a party like the Shiv Sena, which has used the same chauvinistic Hindu stance to build up its following but which is not under the discipline of the RSS. Singhal can be made to eat his words as he had done in the case of Amartya Sen. But Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackarey is not immune to any plea. He is a stray bull.
The Prime Minister said that Pakistan would play cricket matches in India. Thackarey challenged his statement and followed it up with the digging of the pitch at the Kotla grounds in Delhi. He has made India - and the Prime Minister - a laughing stock. If no action is taken against him, Vajpayee will be seen as a compromising Prime Minister. The BJP should at least resign from the Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra.
That the BJP has changed its tune is clear from what Advani said in the wake of attacks on the Christians in Gujarat. He said that it was the duty of the state and central governments as well the BJP to ensure safety and equality to members of all religions in the country. They are laudable thoughts. But when it comes to implementing them, the BJP drags its feet. Even now the Home Ministry's response to the excesses committed against the Christians in Gujarat has been lukewarm. Advani's, or for that matter, the BJP's stock would have gone up if he had recommended the dismissal of the state government. Instead, the resolution passed at the Bangalore session commended the handling of the situation by Gujarat chief minister Keshu Bhai Patel. His proximity to the RSS rescued him.
Such examples only prove that Vajpayee is willing to strike but afraid to wound. His liberal posture is not enough. He has to undo the harm his party has done. The polity has got so contaminated that the disparate ethnic groups are having their way. In fact, the BJP's governance has let the worst elements in the society to come to the fore. Violence and hatred are rocking the nation. Religion is being mixed with politics with a vengeance.
Take the Akali Dal, the BJP's ally. It sees no difference between religion and politics. So much so, it does not mind misusing the Akal Thakt, the Sikhs' highest temporal authority. Its head, Ranjit Singh, has issued a hukumnama to order Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra not to make statements against each other. How can the Akal Thakt interfere in a matter, which is solely political? Badal has been rightly trying to establish the supremacy of an elected government over religious zealots. But the interference by Akal Thakt has emboldened them.
The hukumnama or Bal Thackarey's fiats have created a situation in the country where there is no respect either for law or order. Normalcy has been pushed to the background. The Home Ministry's serious notice, if at all it is there, is confined to the precincts of the secretariat. The Mahatma's martyrdom should remind us, if nothing, the futility of violence. It will be interesting to watch how Vajpayee will counter fanatics, fundamentalists and hard-liners when his equation with the RSS has got somewhat diluted.
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