No matter what the BJP’s freshly-anointed spokesperson claims, the Gujarat Gaurav Rathyatra was not about a political party’s legitimate right to launch a political campaign. Nor is the decision to call a last-minute halt in the wake of the NHRC’s criticism indicative of the Commission exceeding its jurisdiction, as miffed BJP men in Gujarat have been heard complaining. The fact is Narendra Modi’s road show was a hideous, even dangerous, idea. In a state that is yet to recover from the communal conflagration that raged unchecked for so long, in a state where a hard won peace is still warily poised, with a large section of the survivors still huddled in relief camps as refugees in their own state — what could possibly be the ‘gaurav’ (pride) Modi and his men were determined to celebrate? What, indeed, was the provocation for mounting a travelling vaudeville, piloted by Modi in a gaudily painted Swaraj Mazda, declaiming to assembled crowds en route on the ‘‘achievements’’ of his government in Gujarat? Did Narendra Modi’s party even think of the gruesome risk they were courting as they took their smug speeches and slogans through sensitive areas in the divided state?

The answer to that last question would appear to be evident enough: Modi and Co knew exactly what they were doing when they designed their show. The yatra was to launch an electoral campaign, before the Opposition could get its act together, well before the assembly polls are even announced. The Gujarat BJP wished to consolidate the ‘Hindu’ vote before the polarisation its government has presided over in the state dissolved under the weight of quotidian concerns. In all probability, then, the aim was to drive the wedge deeper. In these circumstances, the BJP high command’s directive to its state unit to call off the yatra, in the wake of criticism by the NHRC and the Congress, is unequivocally welcome. It is a reassuring sign that the party’s central leadership will not blink at all of Narendra Modi’s acts of ommission and commission all the time. It is reason to hope that Prime Minister Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani are alert to the fact of Gujarat’s continuing tragedy.