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Modi's sinister designs

THE TONE ADOPTED by the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, and the issues he raised in the course of his `Gaurav Rath Yatra' from Phagwel, have established so clearly that the BJP as a party is bent upon consolidating the "gains" made by the terror campaign unleashed by other Sangh Parivar outfits post-Godhra. The presence of an array of the party's leaders (including Rajnath Singh from the central leadership) at Phagwel is indeed a pointer that the BJP is clearly unwilling to acknowledge the pogrom across the State since February 27 as a blot (as described by the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, at that time). The sequence of events leading up to the "Yatra" reveal so clearly the sinister designs behind the campaign and suggest that the developments in Gujarat during the past few months are fundamentally different from the several instances of communal violence witnessed in other parts of the country in the past. While such instances of anti-minority violence — Meerut, Malliana, Bhagalpur, Mumbai and Bhiwandi — during the 1980s could be seen as the immediate consequence of a political campaign where religious passions were whipped up, the events in Gujarat, post-Godhra, point to a pattern where the strategy clearly was to exclude, for ever, the members of the minority community from the democratic space.

The fact that the BJP insists on celebrating the violence unleashed by the stormtroopers of the Sangh Parivar for weeks on end after February 27 (the choice of the word "gaurav" cannot convey anything but this) is a clear enough message about the party's end game. For this very reason, it is difficult to treat the "Gaurav Rath Yatra" as merely another instance of a political party exercising its right to reach out to the people in a democratic set-up. The campaign, in this instance, is clearly aimed at conveying to the members of the minority community across Gujarat the same message that the marauding mobs sent for weeks on end post-Godhra. The majoritarian agenda is being carried out, without even a pause, so that the members of the minority community (and also those within the majority community who do not agree with the Sangh Parivar's agenda) are excluded from the democratic process and this has the full backing of the state. The campaign is rooted in a political strategy that negates the notion of democracy based on pluralist values. For this very reason, the "Gaurav Rath Yatra" cannot be seen as merely a part of the BJP's normal campaign for the State Assembly elections.

The systematic manner in which Mr. Modi and his associates in the Sangh Parivar have been distorting the democratic discourse and running down institutions (the vicious campaign against the Chief Election Commissioner being the latest) only confirms the sinister designs and the extent to which the BJP as a party is willing to go to implement its majoritarian agenda. The dangerous implications of this campaign go beyond that of a party making use of religious identity for political gains. The Sangh Parivar's agenda, as it is being unravelled at every stage of the BJP's moves in the Gujarat context, points out very clearly that the end game is not restricted to mobilisation on communal lines alone and extends to destroying the democratic structure as such. It is becoming clear by the day that the violence against the members of the minority community and their properties was not just the fallout of a failure of the state machinery. Instead, it was an instance where the majoritarian agenda was carried out with precision and determination. This is what is signified by the "Gaurav Rath Yatra". The reality being what it is, it is imperative for the parties opposed to the Sangh Parivar's agenda (the Congress in particular) to realise the dangers ahead and plunge into a campaign that does not stop with the immediate concerns of the Assembly polls in Gujarat.

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