[sacw] On Fr. Stains Murder: The hidden agenda of the Sangh Parivar

[Harsh Kapoor]

FYI
South Asia Citizens Web
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Pahle Kasai----Phir Isai:
The Not So Hidden Agenda Of Sangh Parivar

By P.R. Ram

The recent brutal burning of Fr.Graham Stains
and his two sons by the storm troopers of Sangh Parivar ,
the Bajarng Dali's, is the most ghastly and shameful event
in the chain of such atrocities unleashed by different affiliates of the
Sangh Parivar(SP). While Mr. Vajpayee in his typical way felt ashamed and
did the part of a cover up job, saying he can not blame the Bajarang Dal
until investigations proved that, his home minister, the man who has
specialised in bringing religion in politics Mr. Advani, gave a cleaner
chit to Bajarang Dal , saying that he knows this organisation(of course he
does!) and that there are no criminal elements in these organisation! Mr.
Vajpayee has a more balancing act to do. Even in post demolition days, he
felt apologetic but quickly shot back saying that the event occurred
because the feelings of Hindus have been ignored for a long time.
Similarly after his recent trip to Gujarat, where anti-Christian violence
is at its peak he first criticised the opponents for exaggerating the
incidents and then coolly went onto demand a National debate on
conversions, even when the Christian Minorities continued to be attacked
and persecuted. This is an 'ideal' time for the SP when the Central Govt.
is led by its own progeny, the BJP, and its opportunist power hungry
allies who cannot see beyond their greed for power.
This incident can not be seen in isolation. This is occurring in the
context of nation wide attacks on the Christian minorities, especially
from last one year, and more so after the coming in to power of BJP led
coalition at the center. Last one year or so has witnessed the
intensification of campaigns against this minority. Starting from the
stripping and parading naked of Fr. Christudas in Dumka, the attacks went
on assuming more and more menacing proportions as one witnessed beheading
of the Jesuit scholar in Hazaribagh, assault on CHAI camp in Latur, attack
on Yeshu festival in Baroda, the burning of Bibles, attacks and damage to
Churches in Gujarat, there are innumerable instances to be recounted.
There has been an insane regularity with which these incidents are
occurring. Most of the investigations done by independent journalists,
National Human Rights commission, National Minorities Commission and other
Human Rights groups have clearly shown the hand of some of the affiliates
of SP, be it Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajarang Dal, Hindu Jagaran Manch or
some other SP outfit floated especially for this purpose.
This has been preceded and accompanied by a hate campaign against them.
As per this campaign Christianity is a 'foreign' religion, Christian
missionaries are here mainly for converting the poor and gullible, their
social service activities are a mere ploy for the conversions, these
conversions are done by inducement or force, and fraudulent means are
adopted for the same. These conversions are anti-national acts as
Christianity is a foreign religion, the insurgency in the North East is
because of the propaganda of the missionaries, there is a plot to
Evangelise this Hindu Nation. Because of conversions Christians will
become more in number and this country will become the Christian country
as 'we' Hindus will be reduced to a minority.
It is worthwhile to note that the anti Muslim pogroms and anti Muslim
atrocities have reduced in the intensity from last year or so. The last
major anti Muslim pogrom was the Coimbtore, and the last major campaign
against them was to persecute them for the tribal Muslim marriages in
Gujarat. Prior to that one had witnessed the anti Muslim pogroms starting
from the Jabalpur riot of 1962 and the peak of this was 'achieved' in the
1992-93 post demolition riots. These were preceded and accompanied by the
anti-Muslim propaganda as per which-Muslim rulers had used sword to spread
Islam in India i.e. Islam is an aggressive religion, Muslim kings had
destroyed Hindu temples(wrongs of History have to be righted by punishing
the descendents of those aggressors i.e. the whole Muslim community),
Muslims are responsible for the partition of the country, they are more
loyal to Pakistan(they cheer when Pakistan cricket team is winning)
thereby they are anti-National, they have been pampered by the pseudo
secular govt., they are polygamous, they breed too much because of which
Muslim population will become more than the Hindu population and this
country will become a Muslim state. This propaganda has become the part of
social common sense, which facilitated the implementation of anti-Muslim
pogroms.
These pogroms were executed with such cleverness that the blame of
starting all the riots was dumped on the heads of Muslims themselves. But
all the inquiry commission reports, Justice Jagmohan Reddy
Commission(Ahmedabad 1960),Justice Madon commisssion
(Bhiwandi-Jalgaon1970) Justice Joseph Vithayathil(Tellicherry 1971),
Inquiry commission into Jamshedpur riots(1979) and Justice Shrikrishna
Commission(1992-93) have shown without any shadow of doubt that these
violences were meticulously planned and executed by SP and its affiliates.
The violence, which ravaged this society has snubbed the Muslim community.
They have been "Ghettoised",a permanent impression has been left on them
that they ARE a vulnerable lot, they have to behave as the Hindu Right
wants them to behave- ELSE! This is what the goal of the SP was(is),and
more or less they have "achieved" it. The by product of this whole process
has been the consolidation of the Hindu vote bank(mainly constituted by
upper castes, upwardly mobile sections of other backward and lower castes,
i.e. the major section of middle class). Now having 'achieved' this goal
in the style of classical fascism they are turning the full heat on the
next major minority community, the Christians. And despite reservations
one is struck by the stark truth of Pastor Martin Nimoellers poem, "First
they came for the Jews"
The second Sarsanghchalak(Supremo) of
RSS,Mr. M.S.Golwalkar wrote in his book "Bunch of Thoughts" that Muslims,
Christians and Communists are internal threat to Hindu Nation. In
pursuance of this goal of Hindu Rashtra for which RSS and its progenies
are working for 75 years of its existence, its agenda is taking shape with
the 'first internal enemy' (Muslim) firmly 'chained' (partly physically
and fully mentally and emotionally), and the second 'enemy' (Christian)
currently on the firing line due to the clever machinations unleashed by
it. The plans must already be afoot to target the third
'enemy'(Communist).By the way, in the RSS vocabulary all the Human Rights
activists are falling in this category. Incidentally one has to note that
targeting Muslims had the added 'advantage' in the form of keeping a large
section of the population deprived from the scarce social resources.
Additionally it gives signals to other weaker section of society to keep
'quiet'. In targeting the Christians the additional point being scored is
that missionaries work amongst tribals, and due to the educational
activities done by them. The tribals become more aware of their rights,
which has the potential of shattering the status-quo, which is a
pre-requisite for throwing the society in a retrograde direction. One has
also to note the increase in intensity of the SP offensive especially
after the implementation of Mandal commission recommendations for the
reservations for other backward castes. The caste war in the villages has
taken a turn for the worse with the upper castes, who incidently are the
rich peasants and are also the supporters of SP. Currently SP has a big
advantage in its own BJP, leading the Central Govt., as it makes the
things so much easier. As per their calculations if they could get away
with their acts of commision, even when the other Govts. were in power,
with their own progeny being in power gives them a bigger 'space' to
unleash their agenda. They are also aware that the criticism of all the
human rights groups are as temporary as the winter snow, and this will
melt away soon. So far it could 'achieve' its goals despite not being in
the Govt. power, by its methodology of 'training young boys ' in Hindutva
Doctrine(as per which this is a Hindu nation, and Muslim and Christians
have been the foreign aggressors. The western concepts of democracy and
secularism have been imposed on the Hindu society by the pro-West
intellectuals like Nehru etc. Hindu society requires to organise around
the SP to restore its past glory and show the aliens and alien ideas there
place). These trained cadres are then unleashed on the society in its
different arena's. This 'wonderful' arrangement has reaped rich dividends
so far. With the BJP led coalition at the center the process can be
expedited greatly and Hindu Rashtra will be that much nearer, as per this
scheme of things. Once the next enemy, the communists (i.e. all those
struggling for the rights of the oppressed) are brought under the firing
line the present indirect method of suppressing the struggles of the
exploited will give way to unabashed crackdown on any sign of, demands by
the poor, disadvantaged and the exploited. The atmosphere against them
will be created simply by the rhetoric of National Interests being
jeopardised by the disruption of the work by these misguided groups whose
acts go against the interests of the Nation. They have already rehearsed
it way back when the lathi wielding RSS volunteers attacked the workers to
break their strike way back in 1940.They have constantly been against the
agitations of the downtrodden.

In this painful scenario what do we look forward to offset the march of
the Trishuls of Hindutva? What do we do to challenge the increasing social
hegemony of this middle class based Fascist-Fundamentalist offensive? Can
we pin our hopes on any of the electoral outfits to save the day for the
weaker, exploited sections, undermining whose rights is the raison-de-tre
of this onslaught? Can we still afford to remain scattered and helplessly
watch the gradual tightening of the noose around our neck? Time is
slipping out fast. A United front of the social movements is long overdue.
Coming together of all those struggling for the rights of exploited and
oppressed sections to form a Platform for Secular Democracy can be the
starting point for taking the tasks, which can snub the designs of SP,
which form the base of the struggles for Rights of oppressed, and Human
Rights. Nothing short of a concerted effort of all those concerned with
democracy secularism, egalitarian and just society can lead the way.
Nothing short of agitations, and struggles on the basis of the principle
"March seperately-Strike Together" can take the burden of restoring the
principles of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and Social Justice in our
society.
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