(Continuation)
Violating all the norms of decency, commitment
to judiciary etc., Sp mobilized three lakh Kar Sevaks
and twenty thousand Kar Sevikas to Ayodhya. The
former for Kar Seva with 'bricks and shovels', and
the latter for cooking and cleaning. In a well-planned
manner the Mosque was demolished in a span of Five
and a half hours and the debris thrown in river
Sarayu. In the aftermath of this act of Sp the whole
nation was plunged in the ghastly communal riots
resulting in the loss of thousands of lives and
thousands of cores worth of property. The role of
Sp affiliates (Shiv Sena etc.) in inciting communal
violence came out very well in yet to be implemented
Shrikrishna commission report. These assaults on
the country put 'flesh and muscles' in to the BJP
and the party, which was on the margins of Indian
politics, jumped to higher and higher steps reaching
its acme in 98 elections with 25% of votes and 200
odd MPs in the Lok Sabha. And surely it cannot go
beyond this despite opportunistic alliances with
the power hungry outfits and personalities like
Fernandes and Mamatas. That precisely is the dilemmas,
which Sp is facing today. Can its vote bank be further
broadened? Can 'social engineering' to lure the
low caste/class into the Hindu Fascist politics
of Sp succeed? Can the 'temple mantra' work again
and yield the political dividends?
Since BJP was unsure about this, it kept vaguely
talking about role of temple construction movement
(or Babri demolition) in building the BJP as it
is today, but did not take it up outright. Also
if we recall in the decade of 80s also it was VHP,
which first tested the waters before BJP plunged
in it to catch the electoral fishes. Now it seems
the maximum dividends have been reaped and this
issue may not be gainful any longer to Hindutva
politics. It is because of this that BJP was keen
on Indo Pak war in the wake of attack on Parliament,
as the hysteria created in the wake of war would
have surely appealed to a newer set of gullible
to come in the ambit of Hindu vote bank. Since Uncle
Sam vetoed the war, BJP has been caught in the horns
of dilemma. The way it has been prostrating in front
of US, it dare not go against its dictates. So it
does face the risk of getting wiped out from the
UP scene, and in due course may get marginalized
from the national scene as well.
Some facets of this problem need to be recounted.
The RSS progeny, VHP has a big collection of persons
who are called sants (saints). They participated
and worked for demolition of a mosque so that they
could build a temple on the ruins of destruction
and mayhem. These self proclaimed Rambhakta's claim
that they are deprived of worshipping their idol,
Lord Ram, whose temple they want built precisely
at the 'same spot' where he is supposed to have
been born. The saintliness of these VHP sants needs
to be evaluated. As one of the sants, a Rambhakta,
Tulsidas, responded in a very different way when
he was barred from entering Ram Temples. He was
debarred as he wrote the story of his idol in the
Lokbhasha (language of ordinary people), Avadhi
dialect of Hindi, violating the norm of writing
in Devbhasha (language of gods, Sanskrit), access
to which was not allowed to Shudras and women. For
this 'crime' of his he was 'outcasted' by the Brahmin
community. Undeterred by this he wrote
Tulsi Gulam sarnaam hai Ram Ko
Jako Chahe so kahe vohu,
Mang ke khaibo, Masjid man Rahibo
Laibo ka ek, Na debe Ko Dou
(Tulsi says he is slave of Ram. Whatever people
say, let them say; I survive on alms and live in
a mosque. My give and take with the worlds is done-Goswami
Tulsidas, from his autobiography-Vinaycharitavali).
Was it the same mosque, which the current 'Ram Bhaktas'
demolished to satiate their 'love for Ram'? This
crop of 'saints' is 'redefining' the virtues of
saintliness and is a cog in the politics for Hindu
Rashtra. They are being 'used' by RSS for Hindutva
politics should be clear to all except those who
are feigning to be ignorant of this politics or
those who are benefiting from this fundamentalist
politics.
The deeper coordination of different wings of Sp
is clearly obvious. There seems to be a Chaturvrnay
(Caste hierarchy and division of labor) in this
political conglomerate.
While RSS decides the strategy, VHP incites the
religious hysteria and BJP converts that into the
electoral 'notes' (!votes), while the lowest
on the hierarchical scale the Bajrang Dal wields
Rampuri knives, disguised as Trishuls. Now even
the guns are being made available to this layer
of Sp. Superficially it may sound that there are
trishuls drawn between them, but their patriarch
RSS, ensures a 'smooth' coordination and so all
the stepping on each others toes is avoided.
With failure of the Chetavani yatra and plea to
the PM not yielding the desired results what new
strategies this wily outfit, Sp, will come forward
with, is a million vote question.
