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Just
forget the Budget
As the terror at Godhra threatens to spiral out of control...
A pity
the nation will not be able to concentrate on the crucial budget
or the far reaching consequences of the state election results.
The macabre incineration of kar sevaks at the outer signal of Godhra
railway station in Gujarat threatens to escalate beyond the administration’s
control.
Between
the BJP led Union government and the omnibus entity called the Sangh
parivar there was always a tacit arrangement, an understanding on
a host of issues defining the colour of Indian nationalism.
The
executive, namely the BJP, was able to cite the constraints under
which it was managing a unwieldy 20 party NDA apparatus as the reason
for its compulsory moderation on the Hindutva track. It could not
be seen to be pushing for extreme Hindutva because in that event
the coalition at the Centre would collapse.
Other
members of the Sangh parivar, the RSS and the VHP, for instance,
were under no compulsion for tactical restraint. In fact, it adopted
towards the Atal Behari Vajpayee administration a tactic made famous
by the Communists towards Indira Gandhi in the late 60s — unity
and struggle.
For
long spells it looked like perfect orchestration between the BJP
government and the purely ideological elements in the parivar. But
extremist movements have a velocity which cannot always be controlled.
Differences
between the parivar and the BJP government had been accumulating.
For example, the attack on the PMO, which resulted in the departure
of the economic advisor, N.K Singh, from South Block and which weakened
the principal secretary, Brajesh Mishra, was directed by the parivar,
taking advantage of some fissures among the BJP members of the Cabinet.
That Mishra bounced back with enhanced powers reflected on the prime
minister’s seniority and stature within the parivar as well as his
capacity to dig his heels in. But the differences were only apparently
papered over. There was always the danger of the equation between
the BJP and the rest of the parivar snapping at some moment of extreme
pressure.
Sometimes
a sudden surprise, like a bolt from the blue, or as a response to
an extreme shock, comes across as anger. Shock defeats in four states,
the reversal in Goa, the loss of two assembly seats in Gujarat,
have all cumulatively caused the Parivar to angrily list a series
of grievances with retrospective effect.
‘‘At
this stage we do not care if the BJP government goes,’’ said a prominent
Parivar ideologue.
Remember
how the government persuaded Jayanendra Saraswati Jagatguru Shankaracharya
to give up his fast unto death against cow slaughter? A commission
was announced. Well known Gandhian, Dharampal, was not even paid
his train fare from Wardha whenever he arrived in Delhi to take
part in the commission’s perfunctory meetings. The government, in
other words, was not serious about banning cow slaughter. The Shankaracharya
was being slighted.
The
grievances are not all heaped upon the prime minister. Home Minister
Advani also takes some flak. His ministry was able to do nothing
about the four senior RSS workers abducted in Tripura. According
to parivar sources, the matter was not even taken up with Bangladesh.
Indeed, the RSS on its own had to recover the bodies after the pracharaks
were murdered.
What
happened to Vajpayee’s promise made in December that by March 15
the government would find a way out of the Ayodhya problem? He said
he was talking to groups. Which groups? Was it just a trick to derail
the Chetavani Yatra?
The
parivar is also peeved at the way some ‘‘senior’’ sadhus were offered
nothing by way of hospitality when the prime minister received them
the other day. ‘‘The sadhus could have been received more politely.’’
The
litany of complaints continue right up to the tragedy at Godhra.
‘‘Just look, the government’s statements and the editorials in the
English language press seem to suggest that it were the kar sevaks
who had murdered the passengers.’’ Then, after a pause, ‘‘why don’t
they blame the Muslims who perpetrated the heinous crime?’’
I
have given this flavour of the thinking among the higher echelons
of the parivar simply to communicate the frightening truth: the
Sangh parivar is in a black mood after the recent humiliating electoral
reverses.
Last
night a journalist from Israeli radio interviewed me on the Godhra
incident and what it portends. Let me repeat her question verbatim:
‘‘While General Musharraf is trying to contain religious extremism
in his country, is religious radicalism on the increase in India?’’
This
is the sort of question journalists contrive to come up with while
coping with an issue which is far too complex to lend itself to
instant punditry.
And,
yet, just ponder for a moment how this Israeli journalist’s mind
must have been working. Here was Pakistan, a theocratic state, increasingly
under the grip of religious extremists, exploiting Islam for the
export of terror worldwide. And yet, with the international community
supporting him, Musharraf has seized upon the moment to loosen the
extremist strangle hold and embark on far reaching reform towards
a modern state. Was India moving in the opposite direction?
Of course this line of thinking is simplistic and somewhat innocent
of the Indian reality. But these exactly are the shades in which
the world will see us if the Sangh parivar, having lost the electoral
battle, in determined to take the battle to the streets.
The
government has a great deal to answer for, there can be little doubt
about that. What were the central and the state intelligence agencies
doing when — it is now commonly recognised — it took weeks of preparations,
state sponsorship of kar sevaks, a series of communal incidents,
even on trains, all building up to the catastrophe at Godhra.
The
irony is that if the VHP had been firmly checked in time (and not
engaged in a bizarre pirouette), the interview on Israeli radio
would have been a post election survey, a celebration of Indian
democracy, its miraculous ability to mediate class, caste, communal,
regional, linguistic diversities, welding us slowly into a nation,
against the backdrop of an enduring civilisation.
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