The involvement of the
VHP and the Bajrang Dal in the “nationalists vs Muslim separatists”
agitation in Jammu and Kashmir and in the “nationalists vs Christian
proselytisers” riots in Orissa underlined a change in the composition
and targets of the saffron stormtroopers. In an earlier period, it was
the RSS which led the charge against the alleged aliens. A look at the
inquiry commission reports on communal outbreaks will point to its
role. For instance, the Jitendra Narain commission probing the
Jamshedpur riots of 1979 stated that it was “of the view that the RSS,
with its extensive organisation in Jamshedpur ... and close links with
the Jan Sangh and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, had a positive hand in
creating a climate which was most propitious for the outbreak of the
communal disturbances”.
The conspiracy
Similarly, the commission inquiring into the Tellichery riots of 1971
said that the “RSS had taken an active part in raising anti-Muslim
feelings amongst the Hindus of Tellichery and in preparing the
background for the disturbances”. In his autobiography, A Life of Our
Times, Rajeshwar Dayal, who was the home secretary of Uttar Pradesh at
the time of Partition, referred to the discovery of steel trunks
“crammed with blueprints of great accuracy … prominently marking out
the Muslim localities”, and added that “timely raids conducted on the
premises of the RSS had brought the massive conspiracy to light”.
Examples can be multiplied of the role of this “cultural” organization
in such outbreaks. Of late, however, the RSS seems to have retreated
into the background and outsourced the task of creating mayhem to newer
outfits like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. It is almost as if age
- the RSS is in its eighth decade ~ has persuaded the head of the Sangh
Parivar to take a rest from its earlier more arduous occupations and
act, instead, more as an inspirer and guide to its more energetic
followers in the fraternal organisations. It was the VHP and the
Bajrang Dal, therefore, which were active in the Gujarat riots of 2002
and more recently in Orissa. Earlier, they were implicated in the
assassination of the Christian missionary, Graham Staines, and his two
sons in Orissa.
What is noteworthy about this passing of the baton from the RSS to the
VHP and the Bajrang Dal is that the BJP may find itself in politically
untenable situations as the Parivar’s riot brigade becomes more and
more varied, resulting in a lack of Nagpur’s control over their
activities. The importance which people like Ashok Singhal and Pravin
Togadia, both belonging to the VHP, have gained in recent years and the
sharpness of their attacks on Atal Behari Vajpayee and LK Advani,
especially over their failure to build the Ayodhya temple, underline
the problems posed by the appearance of different functioning centres
of the saffron brotherhood.
The VHP’s role in scuttling Advani’s grandiose plans of a rathyatra
from Amarnath focussing on the separatists, and another from the south
on the Ram Sethu issue, show how the mushrooming of more saffron
outfits may not always be politically merrier. Narendra Modi is one of
those who has understood that the objectives of politics and
minority-baiting may not always go together, which is why he is known
to have distanced himself from Togadia. It is a lesson which may be
belatedly dawning on Naveen Patnaik, nine years after he demurely
acquiesced in George Fernandes’ and Murli Manohar Joshi’s detection of
an “international conspiracy” in the Staines’ murders. Having let the
VHP and the Bajrang Dal grow unhindered for more than a decade, the
Orissa chief minister is probably now concerned how the tarnishing of
the state’s name may cost him a US visa, as in Modi’s case. For a high
society lion like him, such a restriction would be a disaster.
But it isn’t only the newer outfits which mark a change from the times
when only the RSS, the Jan Sangh and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh held
the bhagwa dhywaj aloft. That there has also been a change of targets
is evident from the way in which Christians have joined the Muslims in
being at the receiving end of the Hindutva brigade’s ire. Although
Christians were identified as one of the Internal Enemies by Golwalkar,
they were No. 2 on the list. (No prizes for guessing who were No. 1).
Two events, however, seem to have led to the saffron focus shifting to
the Christians. One was the Babari Masjid demolition and the other was
the coming to power of a BJP-led government at the Centre. While the
extensive post-demolition riots, which were preceded by the outbreaks
during Advani’s rathyatra, seem to have warned the Parivar against
further immediate excursions in this field, especially when the
government was promising a riot-free, bhhay-mukt samaj, the need to
keep the saffron militias engaged made them turn their attention to the
Christians.
Christians
There was one difficulty, though. While the Muslims could be pilloried
for their medieval atrocities and present-day terrorism, the targeting
of Christians required a more innovative approach, especially because
they constituted a minuscule proportion of the population. What is
more, since their numbers had dwindled from 2.5 per cent to 2.3 per
cent, they could not be projected as an imminent threat to Hindu
identity such as the Muslims with their putative four wives did ~ hum
panch, hamare pachis, as Modi pointed out in his more virulent days.
To get over this difficulty of the paucity of numbers, the Parivar had
floated the concept of there being crypto-Christians, who kept their
religious identity a secret, but who would take the percentage of
followers of the faith to 11 or 12 . Of late, however, this idea has
been shelved presumably because it was too weird even by the Sangh’s
standards. Instead, conversions are the bugbear which inspires the
Hindutva warriors. However, they cannot be unaware that while the
targeting of Muslims does not arouse much revulsion because of the
prevailing anti-Muslim sentiments among sections of the population, the
attacks on Christians can cause widespread unease. A prime minister
wannabe, for instance, will feel less elated about the events in Orissa
than about what happened in Jammu and Kashmir.
http://www.thestatesman.org/page.arcview.php?date=2008-09-23&usrsess=1&clid=3&id=250313
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