A moveable madness

A moveable madness

Insanity is contagious, or at least this brand of insanity is. One mindless episode enacted in Delhi some three weeks ago, entailing the alleged burning of the Koran, has now had its repercussions in states as far-flung as Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. It has caused deaths in riot-torn Kanpur, fuelled tension in Pune and Aurangabad, led to copycat reactions in three cities of Punjab and provoked angry protests not just in the Andhra Pradesh capital but in sensitive areas of J&K, like Poonch and Baramulla. As usually happens in cases of this kind, each grotesque incident extracts its own price and gives the prevailing madness a fresh lease of life. Indeed, there is no knowing where the next manifestation of the ugly politics of hate and expediency will surface in these days of instant communication. New media technology expedites the movement of all kinds of information, some of which have the potential of setting cities on fire. It may be recalled that the visual ofa Koran being burnt that appeared on the posters which had mysteriously surfaced on the walls of a local mosque in Kanpur, and which had led to widespread violence in the city, was downloaded from an Internet site.

The recent incidents reveal once again how closely inter-connected the various religious communities in the country are; how vital it is that they live at peace with one another and, indeed, how communal harmony can and never should be taken for granted. The situation demands an urgent response, both from the state and the citizen, since it challenges the legitimacy of the first and the sanity of the other. If, for instance, the authorities had cracked down effectively when the first incident had occurred in Delhi, this whole cycle of violence may never have been unleashed. As it happened, the state reacted to the incidents, as and when they occurred. It would have been far better if it had anticipated and preempted them through effective and timely action. Similarly, if citizens had taken the initiative to dissipate the rising tension when the first signs of communal disturbances surfaced, perhaps cities like Kanpur need never have burnt. Patently mischievous acts, like the burning of religious texts and thepolluting of sacred spaces, are resorted to precisely for their inflammatory potential. Ironically, communities attacked thus, by allowing themselves to succumb to the poison and getting provoked, only end up playing to a script written by their aggressors.

Last week, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee condemned the burning of the Koran as a heinous act and urged all state governments to take swift and stern action against the perpetrators. He rightly saw it as being aimed at weakening national unity and communal amity and reiterated that ``the Holy Koran is sacred not only to Muslims but to all other communities in India''. Translating these sentiments into actual governance is, of course, another story, especially when there are organisations within the Sangh Parivar which are only too happy to stoke the fires. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, for instance, dismissed reports of the burning of the Koran as ``rumour mongering by Islamic fundamentalists''. The VHP will never know it, but its mindset and strategies are almost a mirror image of that of the Islamic fundamentalist.