People's Democracy

BY the time this issue of the paper comes out, results of four assembly elections would have started trickling out. Going by all the available indications so far, it is clear that the BJP and its allies are going to suffer a shattering defeat in all these states, particularly UP and Punjab. The UP results, in particular, cannot but have repercussions for the BJP-led central government too.

But there are also indications that in the immediate aftermath of these elections, Indian democracy is also going to face a very very crucial challenge from the RSS-led communal combine. The VHP has already announced that it is going to start temple construction at the disputed site from March 15 onward and, in a mock show of heroism, it has even dared the central government to stop its activity, if it can. There is news that the already prefabricated materials are now being transferred to Ayodhya. It is thus clear that whosoever forms a government in UP after February 24, will have to face an extraordinary situation which will not be easy to handle.

But, in face of the VHP’s threat which amounts to a direct threat to our parliament, our judiciary and our secular masses, the attitude displayed by the prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has been most shameful, to say the least. One could expect that, as the guardian of our democratic system, he would meet the threat head on and send a clear cut message to the communal forces that enough is enough, nobody would be allowed to take the law into his hands. The least that could be expected from him was that he would do some plain talking and tell the VHP that it would not be allowed to do anything at the disputed site till a court verdict comes or till the dispute is settled through negotiations between the two parties. What is most condemnable is that the prime minister has simply pleaded helplessness, meaning thereby that he cannot do anything to stop the VHP from putting its threat into practice.

But the question arises: if Vajpayee cannot do anything to defend our democracy, what on the earth he is there for? What justification would he advance about holding the post of the prime minister that is the most powerful post in a parliamentary form of government?

However, the truth is that the so-called moderate Vajpayee has been playing his own game on behalf of the communal combine. As detailed in these columns from time to time, directly or indirectly, covertly and not so covertly, he has always boosted the morale of the RSS-led combine. His latest act of pleading helplessness also amounts to the same thing: Go ahead and do whatever you like, I am simply not going to intervene. No warning to the communal combine, no deployment of army around the disputed site, no attempt to make the people aware of the incendiary game the RSS outfits are out to play, and no attempt to take political parties and people’s representatives into confidence! So much so that Vajpayee appears to have even forgotten that there still exists in the country a body called the National Integration Council that is eminently suited to deal with the issue.

However, the truth is that, despite his moderate image built up by bourgeois media, Vajpayee has many times demonstrated where his real sympathies lie. He has often been posed as a moralist par excellence among the politicians. But this very Vajpayee did not hesitate from telling a lie. Recently, he told the nation that he talked to both sides of the dispute and found that both were "equally adamant." But he did not tell as to whom he was talking to. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board and the Babri Masjid Action Committee have made it plain that they were not invited to any talk whatsoever. On its part, the VHP has also denied its participation in any talks, except that its delegations sometimes met the latter, which cannot be dubbed as participation in any bilateral negotiation. Thus the prime minister’s high morality is there for all to see.

In fact, this attitude being displayed by the prime minister is quite in consonance with the strategy the saffron brigade has chalked out to push its communal game ahead. This is evident from a statement made by VHP leader Ashok Singhal that "Shri Vajpayee was trying his best. Keeping in mind the compulsions of the prime minister, we do not think he could have done anything more without talking to his coalition partners" (Organiser, February 10).

The prime minister’s lie is also in the tradition of telling lies that have been the saffron brigade’s stock in trade. Take the case of the 67 acres of land adjoining the disputed site, which was taken over by the Narasimha Rao government in 1993. Singhal described this land as undisputed, saying that no case was pending in any court regarding the major part of this land except an area of 80 x 40 square feet. But it is precisely this 67 acres of land whose transfer to any organisation was forbidden by the Supreme Court. The court has said, "The challenge to acquisition of any part of the adjacent area on the ground that it is unnecessary for achieving the objective of settling the dispute relating to the disputed area cannot be examined at this stage." This means that to transfer any part of the adjoining land to the VHP will amount to flouting the clear ruling given by the Supreme Court, as the fate of this land depends on the result of the title suit related to the disputed site.

The RSS-VHP position is not surprising in the least. The fact is that the RSS-led communal forces have been on a weak wicket from the very beginning, and that is why they have often resorted to dubious methods, sometimes with the collaboration of the administrative machinery. First, idols where surreptitiously placed in the Babri Masjid on one December 1949 night, in a bid to present the nation with a fait accompli. Then, in February 1986, the lock of the disputed structure was got removed with the help of the Faizabad district administration. In a meeting held on September 27, 1989, at Lucknow at the instance of the UP chief minister, the VHP undertook to abide by the August 14, 1989 directive of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court that it would maintain the status quo at the disputed site as well as communal peace and harmony. It promised that its followers would not raise any provocative slogans. But history is witness that the VHP did not care to honour its word. Then, in November 1989, with its narrow electoral considerations, the then central government allowed the VHP to perform shilanyas at the disputed site. The brigade gave an undertaking to the judiciary and parliament that they would not harm the mosque, and how much they honoured this undertaking became clear on December 6, 1992 when the mosque was demolished. Nay, they also erected a makeshift temple on the spot in order to influence the future events. The BJP state government was no less guilty for this crime. Its chief minister assured the court that he would safeguard the mosque. But his government was simply not seen anywhere during the days when the RSS-led hoodlums gathered in Ayodhya and performed one of the most shameful acts in the history of India’s secular democracy.

Not only that, the VHP and other RSS outfits left no stone unturned to rouse communal passions. The then BJP president, Advani, took out a rathyatra that left a trail of blood and mayhem in its wake.

The saffron brigade’s position during the negotiations was most condemnable. While Muslim organisations said they would abide by whatever verdict the court pronounces, the VHP openly said it would abide by the court verdict only if it was in its favour. This was nothing but a mockery of the law and judicial process and thus of a civilised way of life. Advani went even further, saying that temple construction at the Babri site was a matter of faith, which no court could adjudicate.

In the meantime, a most damning indictment of the RSS game plan has come from a 10-page submission recently made to the Liberhan commission by Ms Gauri Advani who was L K Advani’s Special Assistant from November 1989 to October 1991. In her note, she has detailed what transpired between L K Advani and Vinay Katiyar when the latter came to meet Advani some time before December 1, 1992. What Ms Advani said in her submission gives a clear picture of the conspiracy these two luminaries of the Sangh Parivar hatched about demolishing the mosque. Her submission also told about the duo’s feeling that the BJP could not come to power without raising the temple issue. It also told the commission about Advani’s exultation on returning home from Ayodhya after Babri demolition: "Jo karne gaye the, who kar aye" (we have done what we had gone to do.)

It is true that Ms Gauri is an estranged member of the Advani family and has applied for divorce from L K Advani’s son, Jayant. Hence someone may be tempted to trifle her statement. But the thing is that the existence of a conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid, the brigade’s feeling that the BJP could not come to power without playing the temple card, and the attempts to polarise the people on communal lines are quite undeniable things. Now it is up to the Liberhan commission to check the veracity of Ms Gauri’s submission and bring the truth to the notice of the nation.

Be that as it may, it is certain that the BJP has very badly lost the people’s faith and this became quite clear during the run-up to the assembly elections. Vajpayee stands shaken --- naturally. It is in this situation that the RSS combine is facing a tragic situation. As was evident from the bumper failure of the recent VHP yatra, the temple issue is not going to click any more. But the tragedy is that the brigade has nothing else to rely upon. It did all its best to rouse war hysteria in the country, but the people simply refused to be swayed away. In such a situation, the desperate communal combine may quite probably play havoc with our secular democracy, at least for the next parliamentary elections.

One thing is undoubted. The assembly election results will surely compel at least some NDA partners to rethink their relationship with the BJP. The fact is that this relationship has not given them anything worthwhile; if anything, it has only eroded their base. But what concrete steps this rethinking will lead to, is still uncertain.

There is no doubt that the people of this country will throw the BJP out whenever they get a chance to do it, just as the people of UP have most probably done. But some amount of damage cannot be ruled out, if only because the BJP still holds the reins of power at the centre. For example, Vajpayee has already referred the issue of 67 acres of land to his own law minister for ‘advice.’ Yet any such advice would be either unlawful or meaningless simply because, as per the SC directive, this land cannot be transferred to anybody till the final decision of the case. This shows how Vajpayee himself has scant regard for the judiciary. Therefore, before the people get a chance to assert, the allies have either to cry halt to the brigade’s incendiary game or else be prepared to face the popular wrath.

It is also high time for all the secular forces, organisations and individuals to close their ranks in order to defeat the threat. They may have differences among themselves on other issues. But these cannot be allowed to come in the way of defending our secular edifice and syncretic ethos, of our national unity and communal harmony, of the same unity in diversity that has given India a unique place in the world. We have also to see that the status of the disputed site remains unaffected, that army is deployed around it, and that political parties and people’s representatives are taken into confidence. These are the minimum requirements today.