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Written by Sagarika Ghose
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Tuesday, 28 March 2006 |
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Page 1 of 2
Sagarika Ghose, Hindustan Times, March 16, 2006
Never was there a greater contrast between Hinduism and Hindutva. Two bomb blasts shattered the calm of 2,500-year-old Varanasi on Tuesday, March 7. Immediately, the political party that claims to defend all Hindus swung into action implying that this was an attack on Hindus. The BJP disrupted Parliament, the Lok Sabha was adjourned, BJP leaders unleashed rhetoric about ‘minority appeasement’ and argued that the killers were emboldened by various policy initiatives of the UPA. But as Hindutva pointed fingers at ‘minorities’, ‘anti-nationals’ and ‘religious fundamentalists’ what did Hinduism, by contrast, do? Hindutva blustered but Hinduism turned to prayer. Hinduism turned its back on calls to religious hatred. Hinduism came in large numbers to donate blood. Brave forgiving diyas floated as a holy city asserted its magnificent dignity. Let the demagogues yell, whispered the Ganga, but I too am here.
Now the BJP is all set to launch its twin National Integration yatras, to be led by party president Rajnath Singh and leader of the opposition LK Advani. The yatras, Advani recently said, are a response to the ‘wildfire of minorityism’ lit by this government. In fact, ‘minorityism’, according to the BJP, is the main reason for the Varanasi blasts. No doubt the UPA government is trying to cultivate its Muslim vote bank in the guise of secularism. No doubt the Congress’s Achilles heel has always been that it has misunderstood ‘secular’ to mean reservations and promises like the 5 per cent scheme in Andhra Pradesh or bending over backwards trying to declare the AMU as a minority institution.
Islamist extremism is linked to terrorism and al-Qaeda has used religion to advance its cause. But in the case of Osama bin Laden or the suicide bombers or Mohammad Atta, we at least have some knowledge of the ideologies they come from and the movements they represent. What do we know about the ideology of Salar alias Salim, shot by the police the day after the blasts as the alleged ‘Muslim’ mastermind behind the blasts? A kurta-clad ‘Muslim looking’ man creeping around the UP countryside armed with guns and grenades just after the blasts, waiting to be shot by the police, seems fascinatingly convenient.
Who is Salar? Doesn’t the public have a right to know? Why did he want to attack a Hindu temple? Simply because he hates Hindus and wants to create communal trouble? Seems like a caricature narrative.
The BJP’s insistence that it is the UPA’s minority appeasement that is leading to Muslim terrorism seems a trifle far-fetched. Whoever carried out the Varanasi blasts certainly had an acute sense of political timing. They knew that UP elections are a few months away. That the Godhra report had come out saying the Sabarmati Express fire was an accident and had created a furore. That the last few weeks had seen Muslim mobilisation on the Bush visit and the cartoon protests. Whoever bombed Sankat Mochan temple wanted to create a communal riot.
Let’s examine the ‘appeasement’ hypothesis. If I’m a ‘Muslim terrorist’ and the UPA is busy trying to appease me, would I suddenly set off bombs in Varanasi knowing that in any case the government is trying to please me? In fact, as a ‘Muslim terrorist’, I’m far more likely to set off bombs against the ‘anti-minority’ NDA, attacks which in fact did happen. There were regular terror attacks during the NDA regime, during the time of the so-called ‘hard state’ such as the attack on the Raghunath temple in Jammu in 2002, Akshardham temple in Gujarat in 2002 and the Parliament attack of 2001.
Not only is the logic linking ‘Muslim appeasement’ and the blasts a little faulty but this time Advani seems to be quite out of touch with the realities of a liberalising new economy. In 1989-90, Advani launched the famous Ram rath yatra which catapulted the BJP to the national mainstream, after the Shah Bano judgment and the Mandal report had created a mood of Hinduism under siege. Yet India is now a different country from 1989-90.
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Tuesday, 07 October 2008
