People's Democracy

Caught Between Confidence And Desperation

Parivar Leaders Spew Venom

Nalini Taneja

CAUGHT between confidence over having got away with Gujarat and desperation over not quite making it even then, the Sangh Parivar is in a bind over its next moves. The Supreme Court decision on the referred matter of elections in Gujarat has spoilt its immediate plans of, as the saying goes, making hay while the sun shines, and the Parivar is now quite desperate and afraid it may actually lose the state it has made its own.

As always, when caught in such situations, it is biding time but wants to show ‘action’, and has resorted to its time tested method of mouthing hate filled verbal missiles every other day which make headlines in newspapers and give the impression the Parivar is moving ahead.

VHP LEADERS’

BOASTFUL THREATS

In a boast far beyond reality, Ashok Singhal, the blood curdling president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad thundered in Amritsar: "Godhra happened on February 27 and the next day, 50 lakh Hindus were on the streets". He further termed Gujarat a "successful experiment". According to an Indian Express report of September 4, 2002, he also spoke glowingly of how whole villages had been "emptied of Islam", and how whole communities of Muslims had been dispatched to refugee camps. This was a victory for Hindu society, he said, and threatened, "We’ll repeat the Gujarat experiment".

A few days ago, Prafulla Togadia, not to be left behind, sarcastically commented that if Sonia were to become the prime minister of this country we might as well have Musharraf, thus creating an identity between Sonia and India’s "enemy", and showcasing the Parivar’s characterization of minorities as anti-national. The question of her "foreign origin" is once again being brought to the fore in speeches, a reflection without doubt of desperation in the context of people’s dissatisfaction with government policies and its failure to cow down the Election Commission and the Supreme Court despite insidious references to the religion of Mr Lyngdoh and claims of "people are with us in Gujarat" when the Supreme Court was considering the matter of the elections.

The vicious campaign ofcourse began as soon as the killings. 'The situation is getting out of control,' says Arvind Sisodia, vice-president of the VHP in Gujarat. A passionate advocate of the Hindutva or 'global Hindu consciousness', Sisodia is a middle-class worker at the Life Insurance Corporation of India. 'In Gujarat, the Muslims own all the shops; they are involved in illegal trade,' says Sisodia. 'And Muslim boys steal our Hindu girls and marry them. So the situation is unbearable.' In the days after the first killings in Gujarat, the VHP had distributed leaflets asking Hindus to pledge a boycott of Muslims - including refusing to be taught by Muslim teachers and ensuring sisters and daughters did not fall into 'the love-trap of Muslim boys'. Sisodia now says " It is up to all Hindus to make sure that we restore India to dominance. Hinduism was once the dominant faith. Muslims have to learn to adapt. Otherwise, it will be dangerous for them. We don't want them here." (‘Militants Seek Muslim-free India’ The Observer (London), Sunday July 21, 2002). "Where do the allegiances of the Muslims lie?" asked Kaushik Mehta, general secretary of the VHP in Gujarat. He pointed to an enclave of Ahmedabad dubbed 'mini-Pakistan' for its madrassahs, or Islamic schools. "We can't allow such places to exist. They train terrorists. Muslims have to integrate. If they refuse to, we'll be forced to make them. Or they can leave."

MODI’S

ANTICS

Chief minister Narendra Modi has been trying to coerce BJP MPs and MLAs into organising lavish public felicitations for him in their respective constituencies to "celebrate" his being polled "the best chief minister" in India, a survey he himself got conducted and manipulated, with not more than a few thousand well picked people being asked their opinion. He, however, speaks everywhere of how "five crore people of Gujarat have voted me the best chief minister of the country but the jealous Congress is trying to malign me", and of how indebted he is to the people of Gujarat for this "prestigious honour."

Despite a formal postponement of the "gaurav yatra", religious sentiments are in full play in the BJP's run-up for the Gujarat polls, whenever they may be held. We quote in some detail the Statesman report of August 31, which gives an idea of the BJP’s handling of this setback to their game of immediate elections.

" From exhibiting photographs and models of kar sevaks on a burning train (implying coach S-6 of Sabarmati Express.), to protecting cattle (read ban on cow slaughter), the BJP's campaign has all the ingredients of raising communal frenzy. Banners depicting the burning Sabarmati Express appeared in Ahmedabad, accompanied by questions such as "maaru kaun? (who is ours?)". This follows a campaign by the Gujarat Gaurav Samiti asking the same question, while pointing out that minorities have many institutions to look after them. These banners flaunt the BJP symbol, but the advertisements do not proclaim the name of any party while condemning Opposition leaders, the EC and NHRC for backing minorities. In Rajkot, a float depicting Sabarmati Express. was paraded and set on fire for the Janmashtami procession, in a throwback to Godhra".

Not even the Narmada issue has been left unattended. The ingenious Narendra Modi, according to the same Statesman report, attended a ceremony to "fill up" the dry bed of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad with the water of the Narmada, to chants of "Narmada Sarvade". What was lost in the midst of all the propaganda was the fact that the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) envisages transfer of water from the Narmada to dry riverbeds along the main canal route when there is an overflow at the dam site. The main and subsidiary canal systems are not yet complete, and water from the dam site thus cannot reach its destination. With the dam overflowing, the Narmada water found its way to the dry bed of the Sabarmati. And the powers that be chose this to play on the sentiments of the people. Modi even declared that this flow of water would continue throughout the year. SSP engineers have discounted this. At present, the dam height is 98 metres. Power generation is to begin when it reaches 110 metres. But for now, the overflow at the dam site is being utilised by those in power.

We should be conscious that such expressions of desperation can easily slip into a situation where the country gets involved in internal conflicts that have nothing to do with the aspirations of the people. In the meantime there is little hope that the government in power will do anything to curb these expressions. It is only the strength of the democratic forces that can stop them.