The Hindu : Chariot of fire

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 23, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Chariot of fire

YATRA: A JOURNEY, a procession, a pilgrimage, an expression which reflects an ancient Indian tradition that has emerged over millennia. Yatra: an organised and often angry politico-religious march which has an enormous potential for turning incendiary, which risks further widening the communal divide and which is invariably conducted with a cynical eye on vote-gathering and elections. No prizes for guessing which definition finds favour with the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. It is a matter of grave concern that the idea of staging a Gaurav Rath Yatra — which was abruptly cancelled in July on the intervention of the Prime Minister after the NHRC warned against the move and after intelligence reports spoke of possible violence — has been revived again. From September 3 onwards, Narendra Modi's Gaurav Rath, which is really a vehicle with a public address system and a hydraulic platform, is set to roll over the length and breadth of Gujarat. With the State Assembly having been dissolved and elections but a few months away, the temptation for the Gujarat Chief Minister to clamber aboard the rath was apparently too much to resist.

The Gujarat wing of the BJP has attempted to portray the Gaurav Yatra as an innocent exercise — as a way of drawing attention to the Modi Government's so-called achievements and a means of kicking off the party's poll campaign. But all it needs to expose this piece of complete falsehood is the provocative decision to flag off the yatra from a religious centre in Kheda, one of the worst hit districts during the recent carnage in Gujarat. Last month, at a time when the rest of Gujarat was peaceful, it was in Kheda town that an indefinite curfew had to be imposed when a local Jagannath yatra procession resulted in clashes, arson and police firing. While the Jagannath Rath Yatra is an annual religious procession, Mr. Modi's Gaurav Rath is a political vehicle and a potential chariot of fire.

Provocative slogans, intemperate speeches and routes chosen specifically to pass through minority-dominated localities — Sangh Parivar-organised rath yatras are calculated to inflame communal passions. Rather than clamber atop a rath and traverse the State to boast about this Government's `achievements', Mr. Modi would do better to turn his full attention to relief and rehabilitation measures for the large numbers of riot-affected. As the Election Commission underlined, in its statement which spelt out the reasons for rejecting the demand for an early poll, the Gujarat administration has failed abjectly on this count. It would have been bad enough if this failure was because of inefficiency. In the case of the Modi Government, one seriously suspects the cause is even worse — namely, because it simply doesn't care.

From all appearances, the decision to revive the Gaurav Yatra has the blessings of a powerful section of the BJP leadership. This raises the obvious question. If the Gaurav Yatra had to be called off in July, what are the conditions which make it permissible in September? Clearly, not much has changed in riot-ravaged Gujarat. Large numbers of people continue to suffer displacement, adequate relief and rehabilitation measures are badly wanting and the climate of fear and intimidation remains unchanged. At a time when the situation is not conducive for the holding of elections, a rath yatra of the kind Mr. Modi has planned is just what it could take to shatter the fragile peace. The possibility that a Chief Minister and his party's narrow electoral ambitions could be responsible for Gujarat relapsing into chaos and sectarian violence is something that Mr. Vajpayee needs to seriously consider. He stopped Mr. Modi from taking the wheel in July. Now that elections are round the corner, he must immediately prevent Mr. Modi from plunging Gujarat into another potentially incendiary situation.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

Stories in this Section

Chariot of fire

Substance should back up style

The Supreme Court reference

J&K and autonomy

Jiang Zemin's claim to fame