[sacw] sacw dispatch #1 (27 dec.99)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #1.
27 December 1999
[The Hindu Right in Action in India]
_______________________
#1. In the Name of Ram
#2. Sangh Parivar - the agenda remains
#3. Abetting The Arsonist
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#1.
Editorial
The Times of India, Ahmedabad Edition, 25 December 1999

IN THE NAME OF RAM

The recent events leading up to the shilanyas in Halmodi village in Gujarat
have produced a positive outcome. It is once again apparent that despite its
frequent protestations to the contrary, the BJP has not been able to contain
the influence of the more excitable elements within the sangh parivar. The
deal between the BJP government in Gujarat and two affiliate organisations
of the sangh parivar -- the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Hindu Jagran
Manch (HJM) -- is reminiscent of a similar arrangement that eventually led
to the demolition of the Babri Masjid. All parties have resorted, at one
time or another, to the politics of appeasement for short-term gains. The
consequence of such thoughtless pandering to extremist elements has resulted
in the rule of law being the greatest casualty. As a consequence, all the
forward-looking rhetoric of the BJP got nullified by the provocative
pronouncements and actions of its sister organisations. Threats and strong
arm tactics might yet see this agenda through, but the sangh parivar remains
clueless about the conversion of hearts and minds. What the tribal districts
of South Gujarat need is sustained efforts to better the lot of the people
and not claptrap masquerading as religious resurgence. It is significant
that the question of Ram and mandir, once the lynchpin of the BJP's
ideology, has now become the last refuge of all those championing lost
causes within the party, Kalyan Singh and Ram Prakash Gupta being the latest
entrants in this category. If the Vajpayee government exhibits the new
paradigm shift in Indian politics, exemplified by coalition politics and
federalism, the ground reality reflects a happy consanguinity between
BJP-ruled state governments with unreformed agendas and regional allies with
apologetic democratic credentials.

Halmodi, then, is an instance of the hidden agenda of the BJP coming out
into the open. It is another matter that only 250-300 people turned up
eventually for the shilanyas as against the expected figure of 10,000. There
is no guarantee, however, that the VHP and the HJM will keep to their
promise of not taking out a procession on Christmas day. The very act of
allowing the shilanyas lets loose a spiral where the next step could be kar
seva culminating in the building of a temple. Worse still, the opposition
parties in Gujarat have done nothing concrete to counter the sangh parivar's
campaign other than making mandatory noises condemning the incident. While
the sangh parivar's auxilliary outfits have blamed Christian missionaries
for converting tribals by various forms of inducements and enticements,
their own efforts at reconversion are far from above board and can only lead
to ever increasing tension. In all this, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee seems to be
enjoying his party's discomfiture at coming to terms with its foundations
myths while enjoying the perks of power. And like most institution builders
in India, he might not be too averse to seeing the sun set over his party
even as he walks into the sunset.
______________
#2.
The Hindu
26 December 1999
Opinion

SANGH PARIVAR - THE AGENDA REMAINS

The Gujarat Government may have ensured a peaceful shilanyas but the
Sangh Parivar is not reconciled to the strong-arm measures of the
Government to stop its fundamentalist programmes, says MANAS DASGUPTA.

THE BJP Government in Gujarat may have scored a point or two by ensuring
a peaceful passage of the controversial stone-laying ceremony
``shilanyas'' for a proposed Ram temple in Halmodi village and the
Christmas celebrations in the tribal-dominated Dangs and other south
Gujarat districts but it does not ensure a lasting peace in the region.

The Sangh Parivar is not reconciled to the Government's strong- arm
measures and is certain to try to disrupt peace at the slightest
provocation, even though it has have still not succeeded in disturbing
the social fabric of the tribals, Hindus and Christians.

What caused particular concern to the Government was the timings of the
Hindu rallies and the ``shilanyas'' which was originally scheduled for
Christmas-eve and to continue on December 25. The period between
December 15 and January 14 is considered inauspicious for religious
ceremonies in Gujarat and thus the scheduling of the ``shilanyas'' on
December 24 caused suspicion among the authorities and Christians about
the real intentions.

The Hindu organisations, particularly the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the
Hindu Jagran Manch, however, have their own explanation for the timing.
It was during Christmas that the missionaries indulged in ``large- scale
conversions'' of tribals. Hindu rallies on the same day in the tribal
areas had brought down conversions to considerable extent, a VHP
spokesman claimed. Such rallies had been going on in the last five years
but they attracted media attention for the first time last year due to
``Christian attacks on the rally'', the spokesman claimed.

Intervention was otherwise difficult since the Ram temple is to be
constructed on a piece of private land donated to the HJM, but the
possibility of the incident igniting another bout of Hindu- Christian
clashes as had happened last year forced the Government to put its foot
down.

The Government did succeed in forcing a number of concessions from the
Hindu fundamentalists starting with advancing the ``shilanyas''
programme to December 22 and confining the ceremony to just three hours
to avoid a possible communal clash. It also compelled the HJM to cancel
the post-ceremony community lunch to keep the gathering within
manageable limits. The VHP and the HJM were also made to call off the
rally on Christmas Day at Ahwa, district headquarter of Dangs, and other
south Gujarat towns having a fair amount of Christian population, and to
cancel the protest ``Dharma Sabha'' in Surat - which the authorities
feared was intended at instigating people against the Christian
missionaries. In addition, it also warded off another threat of idol
installation at a Hanuman temple in Bhilmoda village in the neighbouring
Navsari district.

In return, the Government conceded the VHP and HJM demand for the
withdrawal of a notification issued some months earlier - but disclosed
just a fortnight ago - banning religious gatherings of one religion on
the major festival days of another religion. Though the notification was
applicable to all religions, it was construed to be anti-Hindu,
specifically aimed at preventing the VHP and the HJM from organising
rallies on Christmas Day.

The withdrawal of the notification in charged circumstances has drawn
flak from Christians who feel let down by the Government. They think
that yielding to the VHP-HJM pressure is tantamount to giving an ``open
licence'' to the Hindu fundamentalists to wage a war against the
minority communities. The convener of the United Christian Forum for
Human Rights, Fr. Cedric Prakash, and other local Christian leaders said
that since the notification was applicable to all religions, the
Government had no business withdrawing it at the behest of the Hindu
leaders without consulting other communities. ``We did not ask for such
a notification, its promulgation was just as surprising as its
uncalled-for withdrawal,'' Fr. Prakash said.

The notification, unexpected in a BJP-ruled State, was a bone of
contention between the Government, and more particularly the Minister of
State for Home, Mr. Haren Pandya, who comes from the RSS ranks, and the
VHP leaders.

The VHP expected the BJP Government to consult it before taking any step
having religious implications but Mr. Pandya refused. The rift between
the Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, and the Sangh Parivar, which
had started widening ever since he stalled the re-entry of the party's
national general secretary, Mr. Narendra Modi, in State politics
worsened further with the notification.

The Government had no option but to take a strong stand after the loss
of image it suffered worldwide for the alleged Christian- bashing by
Hindu fundamentalists in the months following Christmas last year. It
also faced an enormous setback in industrial development owing to the
drying up of investments from the European countries in the aftermath of
the Christian bashing.

Because of the serious global implications and the credibility of the
Atal Behari Vajpayee Ministry being at stake, the Centre too was keen on
the State Government keeping the Hindu fundamentalists in check.

Besides, it was the time the BJP tried to make amends on the minority
front since it had already reaped a rich harvest of Hindu votes in the
wake of the Hindu-Christian communal divide and had dislodged the
Congress(I) for the first time from all the four tribal-dominated seats
in south and central Gujarat in the last Lok Sabha elections.

In addition to the massive deployment of the security forces in the
sensitive areas, the BJP Government gave full powers to senior IAS
officers known for their secular and impartial outlook to take spot
decisions to prevent any communal conflagration.

The arrest in the initial stages of Mr. Janu Pawar, south Gujarat chief
of the HJM, though for a day before he was released on bail by the
court, sent a message loud and clear to the Hindu fundamentalists that
the BJP Government would no longer act as their godfather.

The threat was also taken note by the Gujarat High Court which, on a
public interest litigation, held the Government responsible for
protecting the lives and property of the minorities and directed it to
appoint two senior Government officials as the court's observers for the
Halmodi shilanyas and the Dangs Christmas celebrations.

Though the BJP as a political party distanced itself from the programmes
of the frontal organisations with none of its elected representatives,
with the exception of the Bardoli member of the State Assembly,
attending any of the religious ceremonies, the Government permission for
the ``shilanyas'' has evoked criticism.

But an official spokesman claimed that it was the ``best solution in the
given situation'' as a refusal of permission after it had compelled the
VHP and the HJM to call off all other programmes could have endangered
peace.

The shilanyas would have gone unnoticed at any other time. A former
converted Christian, who re-converted to Hinduism two years later, the
tribal owner of the land, Mr. Ukadiabhai Konkani, has shot to prominence
even at the cost of his family peace. His major son was opposed to his
father donating the land for the Ram temple, just as he was opposed to
the donation of another piece of land for a church when he became a
Christian in 1995. The plot on which the makeshift church stood was
taken back by him earlier and the church demolished but the shilanyas
for the temple was performed on a nearby plot and not on the debris of
the church.

____________
#3.

The Hindu,
Dec.26, 1999, p.14

ABETTING THE ARSONIST

Be it Dangs last year or Vyara taluka this year, the pattern is the same:
mollycoddle the potential arsonist. HARISH KHARE traces the events then and
now.
IT WAS October 30, 1990, the day set for ``liberation'' of Ayodhya. Whereas
in Uttar Pradesh Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shakshi Maharaj and other
violent kar sevaks had managed to create a bloody confrontation in Faizabad,
the ``Ayodhya movement'' commanders in distant Gujarat had insisted on
creating their own bloody theatre in Ahmedabad. There was a shaky Chief
Minister, Chimanbhai Patel, in office in Gandhinagar; only a few days ago,
the BJP had walked out of the coalition after Mr. L. K. Advani's rampant
rath was stopped in Bihar. The Chief Minister managed to survive by cozing
up to a thoroughly confused and compromised Congress(I).
When the kar sevaks turned lumpen and took to the streets in Ahmedabad and
other towns of Gujarat, the state administration apparatus was
understandably unequal to the uncomplicated task of maintaining law and
order. After all, the sub-inspectors - the cutting edge of the Gujarat
police - had been appointed at the behest of the BJP and Janata Dal MLAs;
the police leadership at the highest level was bending over backwards to
please the new ``nationalist'' forces. Corrupt habits and communal
inclinations among the police hierarchy ensured that for days Ahmedabad saw
violence of the most unnecessary kind.
The worst-effected area was the labour locality of Bapunagar. The local
police inspector was alleged to have repeatedly led the mobs into attacking
the minorities houses.
As far as the minorities in Bapunagar were concerned, the Indian state had
turned hostile. In sheer panic and desperation the Muslim community leaders
sought the intervention of the Congress(I) to do something about the
marauding police inspector; since the Chief Minister was dependent upon the
Congress(I) he promptly ordered the transfer of the indicted official.
And then came the most testing time for the Indian state. The Vishwa Hindu
Parishad cadres simply laid siege to the police station, refusing to let the
new police inspector take charge. For more than 24 hours the VHP cadres
stayed put. An unsure and uncertain Chief Secretary sought private audience
with Ahmedabad's VHP chief and tried to wheedle him into lifting the siege.
The VHP chief told the highest bureaucratic face of the Indian state in
Gujarat that it was a stand-off between rajshakti (state authority) and
lokshakti (people's power). But he was prepared to offer a solution: let the
old, indicted police inspector come back to the Bapunagar police station
just for a few hours and then the VHP cadres would lift the siege and would
let the Gandhinagar Government pretend that it had asserted itself in the
matter of posting a new man.
It was a classic case of the State administration losing its nerve because
it had lost its sense of constitutional obligation to protect all citizens,
irrespective of their religion. As the IAS and IPS brass saw the political
leadership unwilling to challenge the saffronites,the officials began making
their own compromises and adjustments.
This equivocation paid off when the BJP came to power in the State. (It is
no coincidence that so satisfyingly violent and communal had the
Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar belt become that when soon after, in 1991, Mr. L. K.
Advani needed a second, safe constituency he came to Gandhinagar. Nor is it
a coincidence that another ``movement'' veteran from Ahmedabad, Mr. Harin
Pathak, is now a Central Minister).
As the BJP has managed to retain its political dominance, the bureaucratic
and police leadership has found it convenient to make its peace with the
trouble-maker from the Sangh Parivar stable. Be it the Dangs last year or
Vyara taluka this week, the pattern is the same: mollycoddle the potential
arsonist.
What is worse, a section of the police and the bureaucracy joins hands with
a thoroughly sectarian regional press and the Sangh Parivar's professional
gossip-mongers in running down any officer who dares to stand up in defence
of a neutral, competent and compassionate approach to law and order. The
terms of exchange in Gujarat have so thoroughly tilted in favour of the
majority community that the State administration is rarely able to meet the
exacting standards of neutrality. And that is why Mr. Advani finds it
cost-effective to compliment the Gandhinagar authorities for a compromise
with the Hindu Jagaran Manch.

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SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB DISPATCH is an informal, independent &
non-profit citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since1996.