The Hindu : Modi's agenda

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 03, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Modi's agenda

BY STICKING TO his plans to conduct the `Gaurav Rath Yatra' on a date later than the original schedule (rather than drop the entire programme), the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, has only revealed the BJP's intention to pursue its cynical game of polarising society on communal lines even if the postponement brings some immediate relief. Mr. Modi's end game — to drive the members of the minority community into a permanent state of insecurity and to capitalise on the so called "strong Hindu wave" the Sangh Parivar elements had helped generate across Gujarat in the aftermath of the Godhra carnage — was clear right from the time when he first announced his plans to ride on a `rath'. The brazen display of brute majoritarianism (that characterised the riots post-Godhra) had indeed prepared the ground for such a project and the "Gujarat Gaurav Yatra" was intended to further create an intimidating atmosphere in the context of elections to the State Assembly.

This, however, had to be put on hold, at that time. The pressure exerted by some of the BJP's allies in the NDA and that too in the context of the Presidential elections (and to the post of Vice-President later on) had forced the BJP to let expediency guide its tactic rather than ideology. Mr. Modi was advised against riding the `rath' by the party's national leaders for this very reason. The revival of the "rath yatra" plans, soon after, establishes very clearly that the BJP's national leaders were only posturing against the moves at that time. It is clear once again that despite all their claims, the BJP's allies in the NDA are in no position to deter Mr. Modi and his associates in the Sangh Parivar from carrying on with the majoritarian agenda. The fact that Mr. Modi is determined to go ahead with his plans (on September 7) is a clear message to the allies that the BJP is bent on pursuing the agenda, set by the other outfits belonging to the Sangh Parivar post-Godhra, to its logical end. The "Gaurav Rath Yatra" is clearly a programme to accord a sense of legitimacy to the black deeds perpetrated by the storm troopers of the Sangh Parivar for weeks on end post-Godhra. Rather than immersing himself in efforts to establish the Government's commitment to the rule of law (as Chief Minister of the State) in order to remove the pervasive sense of insecurity that prevails among the minorities across the State, Mr. Modi appears to be serving only his own political agenda.

The immediate context in which Mr. Modi announced his decision to postpone his own "rath yatra" — in a bid to avoid a confrontation with the supporters of the Congress State unit chief, Shankarsinh Waghela, who also plan's to kick-start his campaign on the same day from a temple at the same village where Mr. Modi's `rath' was to start its ride — should raise concern. While it is important to underscore the critical difference between faith in religion on the one hand and the Hindutva agenda on the other, Mr. Waghela's strategy, as it is being unravelled, smacks of an attempt to compete with the BJP for the same constituency. Apart from the fact that such a strategy will hardly help the Congress (as it was revealed in Uttar Pradesh so clearly), such moves, even if resorted to for tactical reasons, would only lead to furthering the majoritarian agenda and the alienation of the members of the minority community from the larger democratic discourse. It is in this context that one would expect the political leadership of the Congress to ensure that Mr. Waghela does not carry on with such games any further. Any campaign to counter the sinister designs of Mr. Modi (and the BJP) in the Gujarat context will necessarily have to be based on the democratic values cherished by a civil society anchored in a secular and multi-cultural ethos.

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