One step forward, 3 steps backward!

Sting by repeated wash outs in successive general elections to Parliament, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its earlier avtar Jan Sangh, experimented majority-minority communal polarisation for electoral gains early in 1990s when its senior leader embarked on a Rath yatra with the target of building a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya where Babri Masjid stood. But that failed to reap benefits but only led to the barbaric act of demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, a black day in the history of post-independence India. Expectedly this open and bizarre vandalism of communal mob led series of communal riots all over the country and giving wings to retaliation through terrorism.

But unmindful of the damage caused to the nation and to its secular fabric the Sangh parivar led by the RSS kept abreast of the communal agenda through its various affiliates like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Vanbandhu Parishad, Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Vidya Bharati, Seva Bharati and other Hindu organisations with the BJP giving them all the political face.

But after the drubbing the BJP received in the 1996 election and its subsequent failed attempt of 13-day in office at the Centre due to political isolation, the party learnt some lesson and prepared itself to put the three sensitive communal agendas including Ram temple at Ayodhya to the backburner and thus could lead two successive coalition regimes at the Centre from 1998-2004. But again with the rearing of its communal agenda it lost its partners and its ‘India Shining’ campaign failed to take it back to power at the Centre. Then for the 2009 elections they again raked up Ram Bridge issue in Sethusamudram project and again failed in their attempt to communally polarise voters of India and return to power.

The party for some time now had been seeking to erase the communal stigma by claiming that it will contest the next general election in 2014 on the platform of good governance and development. However by projecting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate, that party has already left many chinks in its armour. Now the party seems to be wary of its prospects in the next election with only Modi’s mask of development and once again bent for majority communal appeasement by raking up Ram temple again.

Like the monkey testing depth of water through its baby, the BJP deployed another Sangh Parivar affiliate VHP for this task in Uttar Pradesh in the context of the “84-kosi parikrama” that was launched by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a component of the RSS-led ideological grouping (along with the BJP).

 In the pre-election season the VHP programme allows for a communal mobilisation of Hindus and at the same time to incite the state’s ruling party to appear to be protective of the Muslim community in the face of political provocation.

However, this is not the foremost aspect of what transpired in Uttar Pradesh on August 25, which included the preventive arrest of top VHP leaders and cadres from the Ayodhya region and other places. Indeed, the most noteworthy dimension of the VHP’s “parikrama”, or religious perambulation programme, is that it was conceived at all, given the dubious history of December 1992.

The “parikrama” is traditionally organised in April-May (Chaitra-Baisakh, according to the Hindu calendar) by the priests of the many temples dedicated to Ram in Ayodhya. It is a strictly religious affair. This is why the out-of-season VHP effort found no favour with the priests of Ayodhya, including that of the controversial makeshift Ram temple, Satyen Das, who criticised it as being “political” in nature,

Even as the Uttar Pradesh administration on August 25 arrested key leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, there was little sympathy for the VHP’s renewed push for a temple at the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi/Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya among key Hindu seers in that ‘holy town’, with many of them lashing out at the organisation for using the Ram Mandir issue for political gains.

Mahant Gyandas, head of the committee that organises the “parikrama” each year, attacked the VHP for going against tradition and playing politics. “The yatra has always been held from Chaitra Purnima to Baisakh Navami, according to rituals. I have been participating since I was 10. It has already been performed by the sadhus in the correct time and the original parikrama is done.”

Criticised for terming the yatra a ‘parikrama’ despite it already being held, VHP spokesperson Sharad Sharma clarified that it was not a parikrama but a padyatra and that seers had chosen to term it a parikrama as the routes were the same. “It is a jan jagran padyatra (march), where only 200-250 seers would participate. No VHP activists or politicians have been invited,” he said. This is typical of a pattern with bullies that they back off when challenged. (After all people of India know pretty well who are these sants, sadhus et al and how they live and to which they are always hooked to, in these so-called holy towns. Many films have been made about them in almost all languages.)

However, Mahant Gyandas hit back at the VHP, saying: “Now at the last moment they are claiming that the media misquoted it as parikrama? They themselves sent pamphlets calling it a parikrama. I attended the meeting, which included Ashok Singhal,” he said.

The Mahant also questioned the route selected by the VHP for its yatra as it included some “communally volatile” places and Muslim populated areas.

“It’s an attempt to polarise votes and disrupt communal harmony,” said Mahant Jugal Kishore Sharan Shastri, former VHP secretary and chief priest of Saryu Kunj temple, close to the disputed temple site. “The VHP is out to defame Hindus and their interests. But the people of Ayodhya have understood their schemes and are not bothered.”

Claiming that in the last 20 years the VHP had lost support in Ayodhya, he said only those with vested interests still participated in its programmes. “We must give credit to the public of Ayodhya for not letting the VHP spoil the communal harmony, which the peace-loving locals consider dear.”

Ram Janmabhoomi head priest Mahant Satyendra Das also said that the purpose of the yatra was to polarise votes for electoral gains. “It doesn’t matter if the yatra takes place or not, it is a win-win situation for the parties involved.” The purpose to politicise it was served, he said, adding that once an issue is politicised like this it is bound to be milked for political gains.

The saints are being used for “vested interests,” the seer said, adding that the order of the Supreme Court on the dispute would be followed and respected.

The priests also praised the administration for not letting the yatra start as they felt it could have led to communal tension. Mahant Shastri added that since the Muslims were an important vote bank for the SP, the VHP was specially targeting the party to polarise votes.

Not many are buying the VHP’s line that the UP government’s action in banning and obstructing its programme infringes its religious freedom.

The plainly bogus nature of the VHP’s logic is obvious as it is known to all that the actual “84 kosi parikrama” has already been held this year. More, it is mischievous to suggest that the religious freedom of the majority Hindu community in India is under strain. Indeed, no religious grouping can offer an excuse along those lines. Communal disturbances in the country, when these do occur, are a symptom of political tussle, and not a sign of religious freedoms being under assault.

In this case, there can hardly be any doubt that the VHP — as an affiliate of the RSS-run constellation — is trying to galvanise communal support for the BJP for the next general election. A sitting BJP MLA and a former MP were also arrested on August 25. What we saw was a faint edition of the communal mobilisation of December 6, 1992, on the Ayodhya issue, which marked one of the more disturbing episodes in our recent history. What is strange is that the VHP, BJP and others like it are still banking on the Ram Mandir trick which is well past its sell-by date. The UP government needs to remain alert regarding any communal mischief as the VHP programme is scheduled to continue well into September.

Against this backdrop, it was incumbent on the BJP, with its present pretensions, to rein in its troublesome affiliate, establishing thereby that it had left behind its divisive past and evolved into a mature political party capable of acting impartially when required. On the contrary, the BJP has not only lent full support to the VHP, arguing that the yatra was a fundamental right, on August 26 it disrupted Parliament over the issue. This overt support to the VHP does not square with the BJP’s stated claim that it will contest the next general election on the platform of good governance and development. Rather the party seems to be ambivalent: seeking electoral gains from both political programme and communal agenda.

To borrow the phrase from V.I.Lenin’s famous work ‘One step forward, Two steps backward’, the BJP’s position seems to be One step forward and Three steps backward (to-pre1990 days).