[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 1 Nov. 00

[aiindex@mnet.fr]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
1 November 2000

________________________________

#1. Bangladesh: CPJ Protests Attacks Against Journalists
#2. Gujarat: The Lab. of India's Communal-Fascists
#3. Identity, Religion and Nationalism of Minorities
#4. The Danger of Presuming That The Bjp Can Ever Really Act Against The
Wishes of The RSS

________________________________

#1.

October 30, 2000

Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Avenue -- 12th floor
New York, NY 10001

Her Excellency Sheikh Hasina
Prime Minister, People's Republic of Bangladesh
Office of the Prime Minister
Dhaka, Bangladesh

VIA FAX: 011-88-02-811-3244

Your Excellency:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed that a
minister in your government has threatened journalists reporting in the
flood-ravaged district of Satkhira, where two journalists were attacked
recently for their coverage of the misuse of disaster relief funds.

On October 25, Minister for Social Welfare Mozammel Hossain encouraged
ruling party members to attack the press: "Wherever you will find
journalists, break their bones," Hossain said in a closed-door session with
Awami League activists and local officials, according to local press
accounts confirmed by CPJ. Several journalists in Satkhira have gone into
hiding for fear of attack, according to the Dhaka-based Media Watch.

Hossain, who is the federal official in charge of overseeing relief
operations in Satkhira, was reacting to press reports that ruling party
members have siphoned money intended to help the victims of severe flooding
in southwestern Bangladesh.

Even before Hossain made his provocative remarks, local journalists had
complained of threats and intimidation by activists from the Awami Jubo
League, the youth wing of the ruling party. On October 20, a group of Jubo
League activists assaulted Sohrab Hossain, a reporter with the regional
Bengali-language daily Loksamaj, after he had written an article about
problems with the government's flood relief efforts. In response to a
complaint filed by the journalist, police arrested Jubo League leader Nurul
Islam. However, Islam was swiftly released after Awami League activists
besieged the police station and staged a demonstration to protest his
detention.

On October 26 at around 7:30 p.m., a group led by local Awami League leader
Asadul Haq-a village chairman in Debhata Upazila, a sub-district of
Satkhira-ransacked the office of the local daily Satkhirar Chitro, and
assaulted Anisur Rahim, the newspaper's editor. The attack followed the
newspaper's reporting on the misappropriation of disaster relief funds. The
assailants clubbed Rahim's face, hands, and legs, and the journalist had to
be taken to the Satkhira General Hospital for treatment.

As a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of ou=
r
colleagues around the world, CPJ condemns these politically orchestrated
attacks against the press in Satkhira. Local journalists have sent a formal
letter to Your Excellency requesting the withdrawal of Mozammel Hossain fro=
m
his posting in Satkhira following his irresponsible and reckless remarks.
The appeal also named several other local political leaders who have
publicly disparaged the press for their critical reporting of flood relief
efforts.

CPJ regrets that during Your Excellency's October 26 visit to Satkhira, no
member of your staff met with local journalists to address their security
concerns.

We respectfully urge you to order an immediate investigation into the
attacks against Sohrab Hossain and Anisur Rahim, and to pledge publicly tha=
t
your administration will do everything in its power to ensure that those wh=
o
use force to silence and intimidate the press will be brought to justice. A=
s
the leader of the Awami League, Your Excellency must guarantee that the
party does not continue to tolerate abuses committed by its members.

CPJ asks also that Your Excellency honor the requests made by journalists i=
n
Satkhira, to guarantee their security and to recall Mozammel Hossain from
his post there pending a full inquiry into his role in directing violence
against the press.

We thank you for your attention to these urgent matters, and await your
response.

Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director

cc:
Rt. Hon. Mohammed Nasim, Minister for Home Affairs
Bangladesh Centre for Development, Journalism, and Communication
Media Watch
South Asian Journalists Association
American Society of Newspaper Editors
Amnesty International
Article 19 (United Kingdom)
Artikel 19 (The Netherlands)
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Freedom Forum
Freedom House
Human Rights Watch
Index on Censorship
International Center for Journalists
International Federation of Journalists
International PEN
International Press Institute
Harold Hongju Koh, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human
Rights, and Labor
Alain Modoux, Director, UNESCO Freedom of Expression Program
The Newspaper Guild
The North American Broadcasters Association
Overseas Press Club
Reporters Sans Fronti=E8res
Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Society of Professional Journalists
World Association of Newspapers
World Press Freedom Committee

______

#2.

Dear friends, Greetings from Ahmedabad! This note by Mr. Hiren Gandhi is a
skeletal exploration into the cultural political issues encountered while
attempting to understand the location of the communal-fascist laboratory in
Gujarat by the Sangh Parivar. Mr. Hiren Gandhi, associated with Samvedan
Sanskrutik Manch (Progressive Cultural Platform) is a well-known cultural
activist in Ahmedabad and has been involved in progressive struggles for
human and democratic rights for over three decades. He intends to explore
this issue more exhaustively and produce a well-researched in-depth study.
If you need the original gujarathi version, contact Hiren. Please send
your comments to him at:
Hiren Gandhi,
9 Rupesh Society,
Vastrapur Station Road,
Jivraj Park,
Ahmedabad 380051.
Tel: 91-79-6815078 & 6824313
Email: hiren_darshan@y... We are planning to organise a seminar on
Nov. 19 in Ahmedabad to discuss this issue. If you are interested do email
us. In Solidarity
wilfred samvad, ahmedabad

GUJARAT:
LABORATORY OF THE INDIAN COMMUNAL-FASCISTS=20=20

We are all too familiar of the rise of fascism on the path of Nazism in
the first half of this century. The shrewd manipulators armed with
Goebbles' propaganda machine spread the poison of ethnic supremacy under
the garb of nationalism, erected concentration camps and gas chambers for
imperialist ambitions.... as if the entire humankind had invited
horrifying destruction for about a decade! Even today, we are faced with a
similar shrewd manipulative and well-planned disciplined propaganda in our
society, the cunning manipulators forcing a back-door entry in our country
and spreading the ethnic supremacy poison called "hindutva-ism."
Disseminated in the name of nationalism, this 'ism' should be recognised
as fascism and fought with an explicit agenda. However, we notice the
secular forces hesitating to launch an organised anti-fascist struggle?
Why? There are several reasons, which will be dealt later. The fascism
earlier in this century was unmasked very soon and its real anti-human
face was exposed. This took place due to the following reasons:=20=20

1. Fascism grew out of the inner contradictions of capitalism: the
barbaric limits of imperialist nature of capitalist system threatened
the very existence of capitalism.2. 3. The Bolshevik revolution
successfully accomplished in Russia gave a vision to the entire human
society to realise the dream of creating a just society free from
exploitation and oppression. It posed a powerful challenge and seriously
undermined the very existence of capitalism and imperialism.4. 5.
During this period, the freedom struggle was picking up to liberate our
enslaved country from the yoke of imperialism. The successful Russian
revolution gave an impetus and concrete direction to the revolutionary
forces in India and other countries engaged in freedom struggles.6.

It is fairly clear that fascism, which bought about the clash between
revolutionary socialism and institutionalised capitalism, had to die out.
It did. But, during the last one-two decades in third world countries
like ours, fascism is almost raising its ugly head by spitting the poison
of communalism, nationalism, and casteist supremacy. Unfortunately, many
are unable to recognise it. Surprisingly, efforts are being made to
analyse it within the terrain of communalism, casteism and/or caste
system. Why this questioning again? Is it because our social thinkers,
activists and intellectuals cannot comprehend it? Or is it that there is no
grave threat to capitalism right now? Is it so? It is possible that these
questions and doubts may seem too far-fetched or appear prejudiced:
because we are gujaratis. Whenever any revolutionary school has taken
roots anytime, our Gujarat armed with "peaceful co-existence and
non-violence" propaganda has either banished these revolutionaries and
revolutionary thought outside the region or co-opted them, or else forced
them into bankruptcy and auctioned out. Glancing at the history of Gujarat
for the last 150 years, nothing else comes to mind. Friends, may I pose
a straight question? Don't the prevalent "notions" of 'acceptable and
established developmental path', 'peace', 'non-violence' (ahimsa),
'civilised behaviour' and 'culture' in Gujarat disturb and shiver you?
Don't you ever feel the desire to totally transform these "notions" right
from the roots? What we see happening to our Gujarat during the last two
decades - has it any direct relation to these "notions"? Don't you feel
so? What does the treatment meted out to the dalits and oppressed class
during this period prove? Let us look at the crystal clear reality. In
the last two decades, our Gujarati dalits, minorities and adivasis have
been converted into frogs and rats and dissected in the laboratory of
fascism. At the same time the eyes and wings of our intellectuals and
middle class were flying in the jazzy skies of liberalisation and
globalisation, with its feet entrenched in the marshes of obscurantism and
traditions. On the one hand, our students and youth believe that
'politics' is 'dirty' and 'untouchable'; while on the other hand, they are
actively engaged in anti-reservation agitation, communal riots, Ram rath
yatras, and mass meetings and demonstrations for Hindutva mobilisation. =
=20
Let us now focus our attention to the most important question: why did the
Indian communal fascist forces choose Gujarat as their laboratory? This
question is complicated, needing deep exhaustive study and research. But a
cursory glance at Gujarat's cultural, economic, social and political
history gives us several clues. Could you attempt to answer this: why
was Mahatma Gandhi born only in Gujarat? Or let us look another way, if
Gujarat's cultural tradition was not available to him for his upbringing,
would he have still become the 'Mahatma"? From a superficial perspective,
this may look 'absurd'. But if we investigate Gujarat's
cultural-traditional heritage and ethical moorings, then the question
assumes significance. For locating the laboratory of communal fascism,
Gujarat's cultural environment emerges out as a key factor, coupled with
the culture of "peaceful co-existence and non-violence" not allowing any
revolutionary or organised movement to take roots. All the ages, our
capitalist class (rowing the seas and developing commerce within the
country and all over the world) was always a patron of the poor, dalits
and the working class. This class was in the vanguard welcoming modern
capitalism by bringing the first textile mill from the West
(imperialists). Labour relations in the textiles were not allowed any to
assume class connotations, but subsumed under the co-existence relations
(kinship, brotherly relations) inaugurated by Majur Mahajan. And no
questions were asked. What did it lead to: capitalism, profits and
technological leaps on the one hand; whereas on the other hand, a poverty
of movements for social transformation. Thanks to the merciful benevolence
of the imperialist 'sahibs' and charitable outlook of our nagarsheths,
education and educational institutions spread far and wide. However, in
the name of tradition, culture and peace, even the very idea for a
movement consciousness (renaissance) was not allowed to sprout. As a
result, our dalits became 'harijan', adivasis migrated out to farms and
cities becoming 'mamas' (duds), and the minorities are limping mainly due
to poverty, illiteracy, religious fundamentalism and under-employment. =
=20
Is there any need to ask: why Gujarat did not produce a Raja Rammohan Roy,
Jyotibha Phule, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar or Birsa Munda? It did produce
Dayanand Saraswati, but why did his 'Arya Samaj' spread its wings outside
Gujarat? Let us now turn our attention to Gujarat's role in the freedom
struggle. You can search with a microscope, but will find hardly any role
in the 1857 rebellion. During the beginning of this century, we gave to
the whole world the apostle of peace and ahimsa Gandhiji; and we gave to
the Congress, the Iron-man of Patel politics, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
But the revolutionaries of the freedom struggle like Bhagvatichandra Vora,
Madam Cama, Sardar Prithvisinh, Shyamji Krishna Verma are all scattered
and submerged in some library stacks, as if they were not Gujaratis! =
=20
Looking at the political developments in post-independent Gujarat, only
two progressive movements come into view:=20=20

1. Mahagujarat movement: mass movement character assumed by the
agitation due to the leadership of PSP and section of the Congress
leadership.2. 3. Navnirman movement: The internal disputes in
Congress coming out in the open and later transforming into a youth
movement.4.

But both these movements did not give any political consciousness and
ideology of the modern age to the Gujarati masses, students or youth.
Whereas, during this very period in other parts of India, starting from
Naxalbari to the peasant movements, labour and dalit movements, and
students revolts occupied centrestage with clear directions and
organisational visions of the political ideology of the modern age to
emancipate the youth, dalits, oppressed and exploited class. In the
opposition to the emergency of 1975-77, several intellectuals from Gujarat
did voice protest and even courted arrests. But they had no direct contact
with the common masses and their primary agenda was restoration of
bourgeois democracy. Their struggle was largely confined to the
"individual level." In the course of this struggle, they started seriously
contemplating about 'civil liberties' and after the emergency, they formed
small groups (associations) of intellectuals on this issue. The activities
of these groups are confined to "intellectual debates and discussions"
even till today. They even made several half-hearted token efforts to
build mass support. Today, after 25 years of emergency, the common masses
of Gujarat (in other words, the minorities, dalits and adivasis) hardly
consider them as their leaders or guides. Before embarking upon the
post-emergency political dynamics, one moot point needs to be underlined.
After the post-Emergency rout of Indira Gandhi all over the country,
several calculative Congress leaders from Gujarat organised for Indira
Gandhi massive public meetings to express their solidarity with her. These
very leaders also opened to doors of the political arena to the communal
fascists to garner mass support - thanks to the KHAM (kshatriya, harijan,
adivasi, Muslim) theory. The politics of converting dalits and minorities
into a "votebank" gave the Congress a thumping majority, but it unleashed
the wildfire of the anti-reservation agitation. Ditching away the mask of
'peaceful co-existence', the communal fundamentalist forces jumped in the
arena with fire and brutally bashed the dalits. These 'offerings
(prasaad)' from their 'patrons' of the mahajan culture bewildered our
'harijans.' Many educated dalits took up the task of organising the
dalits, but they could not gain much headway due to lack of concrete
ideology, history of movement, experience and consciousness. In addition,
intercaste rivalries within dalits compounded it. Consequently, Congress
again contested the 1985 state elections on the KHAM platform and came to
power with a massive majority. This time the communal fundamentalist
forces launched their planned bloody progrom. Dalit screams and cries for
help from widespread terror and bloodshed halted the Congress at a crisis
point. They took the shelter of communalism and the anti-reservation riots
changed gears into communal riots, giving a master key of 'Hindu
votebank', 'dominant caste (savarna) politics' and 'nationalist politics'
to the communal fundamentalists. Henceforth, these forces continued on
their uphill march and transformed Gujarat into a laboratory for communal
fascism. From 1985 to the post Babri demolition barbaric riots of 1992,
these forces sunk their political roots deep in the educated, youth and
intellectual section of Gujarati society. Advani's rath yatra from
Somnath, communal riots, anti Mandal agitation, etc. all spilled beyond
the cities and towns into the rural and tribal areas spreading communal
and Hindutva nationalist venom. And the results were there - they had
to come by. These forces swept the 1995 elections and, for the first time
captured power in Gujarat with a comfortable majority. Now their eyes were
set on the national government in Delhi. They started giving a fascist
character to their communal and nationalist experiments tested in Gujarat.
They soon tasted victory. In the next elections, they were in both seats
of power, Gandhinagar and Delhi. On assuming power, they successfully
experimented their strategy - "first Muslims (butchers), then Christians,"
that too in the rural and tribal hinterland of Gujarat. They then exported
this strategy and plan of action to other regions in India and reaped
great results. Even though they could not garner a majority in the
national government, they have been speedily implementing their agenda:
nuclear adventure in the name of national security, spraying
casteist-communal venom in education, shrewd propagation and spread of
'hindutva-ism' under the garb of nationalism, Kargil war, etc. They have
managed to engage the attention of the nation's educated and intellectual
class in discussions and debates on their agendas, while cornering the
minorities to shiver in terror and fear. They have started skilfully
infringing upon our civil rights, while laying the ground for fascism under
the veil of nationalism. Friends! Gujarat is even today a laboratory
of these forces. Today, before our very own eyes, experiments are going on
to give final touches to the bloodthirsty communal-fascist dragon. How
long will we go on watching as mute spectators? With this question let me
sum up this note by quoting some stanzas from the poem on fascism by young
Hindi poet Kumar Ambuj: Then will come cruelty -
first it will be in the hearts
but faces will not reveal anything
then it will transform into
the language of the scriptures
then into history and futurology
then it will become an ideal for the masses. It will come as a culture
without facing any protest
it will always try to ensure that
it is seen as cultured and historical. It is almost likely that -
it will come
and we will not be aware for a very long time
of its arrival.=20=20

*Translated by Wilfred from an original Gujarati article by Hiren Gandhi.

"Gandhi regarded Majur Mahajan as a model to be followed elsewhere in
India but, as the Royal Commission on Labour in India noted in 1931, its
success in Ahmedabad depended very largely on unique circumstances. The
employers and employees were alike Gujaratis, and Mahatma Gandhi enjoyed
such prestige in the city that both had immense confidence in his sense
of fairness and sympathy towards them. It could be added that the Majur
Mahajan had carried on the traditions of the mahajans of old Ahmedabad,
and it is not in the least remarkable to anyone familiar with the
history of the city and Gujarat that she should have evolved a unique
and highly successful system of industrial arbitration and that she
should have nurtured Mahatma Gandhi."
GILLION Kenneth L. (1968) AHMEDABAD: a study in urban history. (Univ. of
California Press, LA) p. 159, emphasis added.

______

#3.

Free Press Journal
31st Oct. 2000

IDENTITY, RELIGION AND NATIONALISM OF MINORITIES

Ram Puniyani

We are living in strange times. With every passing day there are new
Dictates for the minority community. These Fatwas should normally deserve
contempt as they are based on the concepts, which are polar opposite of
the secular democratic ethos of ours'. But unfortunately as they are
coming from the 'patron saint' of the leader of the ruling coalition,
(BJP), Mr. K. Sudarshan, they have to be addressed with concern. Lately
after Mr. Bangaru Laxman took over the reigns of BJP and gave the call of
' blood of our blood' to wean over the minorities for electoral benefits,
the Supreme boss of Sangh Parivar (K. Sudarshan) true to their agenda is
reminding all and sundry that whatever be the likes of Bangaru and others
proclaim for temporary goals, the RSS goal of intimidating the minorities,
imposing Hindutva concepts on them cannot be given up in the long run. And
keeping that in mind, on the occasion of 75th years of foundation of RSS
at Agra he did come out with his usual vibes against the minorities.

He 'advised' the minorities that they could not build National identity
on the basis of religion, stating that attempts to build nationality on
the basis of faith had not worked anywhere. Sane words indeed. But
probably they need to be followed by the organization whose chief he
himself is. RSS right from beginning has made religion as the base for
national identity while a majority of Indians preferred to adopt Indian as
the National identity and based their religious identity on the faith they
practiced. Barring the communalists of Muslim League, who could mobilize a
section of elite Muslims and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS combine who could spread
this vicious ideology amongst a section of elite Hindus, most of the
Hindus, Muslims and people belonging to different communities followed the
politics of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. This
politics rejects the notion that the nations are based on faith. This
politics does not reject religion as one of the identities but gives
primacy to Indian identity with the result that most of the Indians gave
overwhelming response to them and even in the electoral arena their
politics swept the polls and set the tone for the Secular Democratic
India.

In contrast Muslim League and Hindutva ideologues believed in the two
Nation theory, as for them Religious communities form the Nations. Muslim
League felt that since Muslims are a separate Nation they should have
Pakistan, while the Hindutva ideologues asserted that since this is a
Hindu Nation, people of other religions should remain subordinate to the
Hindus. Bhai Parmanand a leader of Hindutva politics articulated it, "Mr.
Jinnah argues that there are two nations in the country..... If Mr. Jinnah
is right & I believe he is, then the Congress theory of building common
nationality falls to ground. This situation has got two solutions. One is
the partition of country into two & the other is to allow Muslim state to
grow within the Hindu State" (Presidential speech of Mr. Paramanand at the
annual Convention of Hindu Mahasabha, 1938).
Even RSS and its progeny have been repeatedly asserting about this being a
Hindu Rashtra, Hindu Nation. They have been using faith as the National
identity as the base of their politics. That belief of theirs' explains so
many of their actions like centrality of Ram Temple campaign in their
political mobilization. That belief of theirs also explains the lack of
certain actions like aloofness from the freedom struggle, which led to the
formation of India, in which the identity of nation does not derive from
anybody's faith. It may surprise many of us but Hindutva ideologues
blackened pages after pages in criticizing the Anti-British struggles,
they were critical of the freedom movement on the ground that it is a
'mere' anti-British movement and it cannot lead to formation of National
spirit (THEIR national spirit i.e. Hindutva). Though today many of them
are trying to take the credit for RSS participation in Freedom Struggle in
reality they looked the other way when all our freedom fighters were
rotting in jails or were facing the British bullets and batons on the
streets.

Now as a demonstration of double standards RSS boss is advising the
minorities not to build their national identity around their religion
(which any way most of them don't!), while sticking to the religion based
nationalism: Hindu Rashtra for his own followers.

In this society we live with multiple identities at different levels, and
each of those have their own importance and relevance. While the world is
moving towards a global village and even the identity as world citizens is
vaguely visible, the primary identity in the current times is definitely
that of a Nation state i.e. that of being an Indian in our context. The
other identities of religion, region, gender, language, profession etc.
have their own importance and place. What Mr. Sudarshan needs to learn is
that already most of the Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others, unlike
RSS and its progeny do not build their National identity around religion?

These double standards are very motivated. For their own self, faith is
THE basis of National identity. But for minorities different yardsticks
are being prescribed. As recently the same person has also gone on to say
that all those living in this country are Hindus. Also in a similar tone,
in the new found assertion of post Babri demolition phase, the then
President of BJP Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi had dictated that, as all of us
are citizens of a Hindu Nation, we ALL should use the suffix Hindu to our
religious identity. As per him Muslims should call themselves as Ahmadiya
Hindus and Christians should call themselves as Christi Hindus. Of course
Hindus need not call themselves as Hindu Hindus. This once again shows
Sangh Parivar aim to ensure the total subjugation of all Indians into the
cultural paradigm dictated by them.

(Dr. Ram Puniyani is Secretary of EKTA, Committee for Communal Amity)

______

#4.

26 October 2000

UMBILICUS OF STEEL

OR THE DANGER OF PRESUMING THAT THE BJP CAN EVER REALLY ACT AGAINST THE
WISHES OF THE RSS

By John Dayal

A little bit of flotsam in the gutter of national political news seems to
have passed unobserved by most observers =13 the rumour that Prime minist=
er
Atal Behari Vajpayee timed his visit to Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai so
as to avoid the embarrassment of having to climb up the synthetic Govardhan
mountain constructed in Agra for the rally of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak
Sangh earlier this month. Not that the mountain would have been difficult
for an arthritic knee; thoughtfully, the swadeshi RSS engineers had
installed a western gadget called a lift. Spin doctors suggested that
India's most popular coalition Prime Minister did not perhaps want to
sully his image of the smiling grandfather, the NDA-friendly modernist
liberal, the slightly sanskirtised Sufi poet-statesman, a warrior against
Islamic fundamentalism, and therefore a `natural ally =19 of United States
President William Clinton, by being seen at this juncture in close
proximity to the likes of Kupahalli Sudershan, the head of the RSS and his
several deputies. Why should Atal-ji hesitate to be seen with Sudershan,
no body is willing to explain. Both the gentlemen have posed happily for
photographers on many an occasion in recent occasions.

In the event, Atal ji need not have hesitated. Lal Krishan Advani, the
home minister who was NOT named as the official stand-by when Atal ji went
under lumber anaesthesia at Breach Candy, declared happily that the RSS
was unto the BJP what Mahatma Gandhi was to the Indian National Congress,
and that both he (Advani) and Atal ji shared membership and historical
roots in the organisation. After that statement, poor Bangaru Lakshman,
titular head of the BJP looked, quite a fool trying to explain to an
unbelieving media that the RSS was not the conscience keeper of the BJP,
that the two were distinct and unrelated entitities, that the BJP was in
politics and the RSS was not, and that the views of the RSS supremo, Shri
Sudershan were his own and did not become a manifesto for the BJP which
was bound by the NDA agenda of governance.

This may be necessary rhetoric to keep Mamta Bannerjee, Chandrababu Naidu
and George Fernandes, secularists of varying degree, from feeling too
embarrassed while sharing in the spoils of office. It also helps many of
my fellow journalists, some of whom are BJP members of the Lok Sabha and
the Rajya Sabha, from the discomfort of being seen as also representing
lumpens who have their legs in khaki shorts and their hands on thick
lathis.

The more blatant apologists of the Sangh Parivar have seriously
recommended to minority community activists not to rush into print
criticising Sudershan's call for a government-accredited Indian national
church, and ordering the Muslim community to accept their certified
genetic links with Hindu gods. Calls such as these, they say, are an
internal fight in the Hindutva camp; the minorities better keep out of it
for their own good. (Other, more fashionable and expensive editors,
differ, putting the blame solidly on minority human rights activists for
provoking the attack on their communities. One suave one says John Paul II
is the Christian equivalent of Sudershan.)

These are curious arguments. The amount of television time and newsprint
being expended on emphasising the difference ands the distance between the
BJP and the RSS, -- perhaps even the difference between LK Advani and Atal
Behari Vajpayee =13 should nudge even the most gullible to really wonder =
if
the RSS and BJP are really different, if Atal and Advani are really
competitors or are they working in tandem, the older gentleman keeping the
seat warm for the heir apparent who still needs some more time to escape
the dust of his own rath yatra, and the shadow of the investigations in
the Babri demolition which are progressing on their frustrating snails =19
pace. It will be safe prediction to make that when the time comes, Lal
Krishan Advani will ascend the throne seamlessly, as one would say in
IT-speak. There will be no murmur from the NDA partners.

People who have monitored the Indian scene from the fifties and the
sixties are firm in their belief that all the spawn of the RSS be it the
Jana Sangh of the Fifties and Sixties or the Bharatiya Janata party of the
Seventies and the Bajrang Dal of the Eighties and Nineties, are linked to
the mother body with an umbilicus that can never be severed, which is
stronger than any forged in steel. They are distinguishable only in their
superficial task-oriented forms, not in their ideology. The BJP grazes
only in the circle circumscribed by its tether. It fattens in the fields
of power politics and governance only to strengthen the RSS. It seeks
political office to modify and modulate policy, to enact laws and coerce
changes in administrative structures that subserve the Sangh agenda. That
is exactly what it does, fattening itself on fruit that political office
brings, nurturing the RSS so that it is eventually strong enough to
implement its agenda. Murli Manohar Joshi, Advani and BJP chief ministers
have done it with impunity in the jurisdictions of their ministries. The
many children feeding the mother. The policies of the RSS that they have
implemented far outnumber the momentary lapses for which Sudershan or his
predecessors have chastised them. What is a swadeshi slap on the wrist when
you know you have altered educational processes that will impact on
several generations.

Once in a while, the RSS does look beyond its own hundred-odd family. This
happens when the particular institution, be it the BJP or the ABVP, is not
strong enough to do the job at that particular. It is commonly known that
the RSS has reached out and supported chosen Congress leaders at critical
times when the interests coincided or coalesced. There have been some
top-secret meetings in the Seventies and Eighties, and it is not only PV
Narasimha Rao who has been unable to resist Hindutva =19s appeal in those
years. In strategic and tactical voting, the RSS cadres are known to have
supported the Congress, or other parties in important pockets to keep out
the Left or the Socialists, as the case may be.=20=20

But it will be a folly to presume that the RSS will ditch its very own BJP
and adopt other agents to carry on the socio-political and religious
engineering that it has planned for India. It did ditch Balraj Madhok, but
that does not mean it will ditch Vajpayee, howsoever lasciviously he may
consort with multinationals. Why should they doubt the prime minister =19s
loyalty. He may have said the RSS agenda is not his government =19s agenda=
.
But he has not said the RSS agenda is evil, and that its ideology and the
pronouncements of its Fuehrer are a threat to the unity and integrity of
the India that we know and love.

=20=20=20