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).
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