The PM's saffron yearnings

TRUE TO HIS habit of flaunting his ``swayamsevak'' credentials and harking back to the Hindutva ideology whenever the exigencies - whether political or personal - warranted it, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, has yet again regrettably eulogised the RSS and echoed its anti-minority sentiments by questioning the bona fides of the Christian missionaries. The blatantly unapologetic display of his Hindutva identity this time round is to be seen in the context of the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh where the BJP is hopelessly placed and desperately wanting to keep the Sangh Parivar cadre in good humour. As for the points Mr. Vajpayee has made about the RSS, his drawing a parallel between criminal proceedings against the Sangh activists (for their alleged involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate Gandhiji) and those against the INA cadres is outrageous and an insult to the sacrifices the latter had made for the cause of national freedom. To depict the RSS as an apolitical, socio-cultural outfit that is dedicated to public service - which is what the Prime Minister's remarks amount to - is patently farcial, if not ridiculous. The stark fact that the Sangh stands for a socially pernicious exclusivist communal platform cannot be wished away or obliterated by resorting to such deceptive portrayals.

Particularly worrisome against the backdrop of recent attacks on religious minorities and their places of worship is Mr. Vajpayee's disapproval of the ``conversion motive'' behind the community service of Christian missionaries. Although one could perceive an anxiety on his part to sound reasonable, as when he entered the caveat ``some'' (of the missionaries) and when he `conceded' the right of those organisations to carry on such work, his insinuation is obvious. A high-decibel campaign was orchestrated by the Sangh Parivar in the wake of the ghastly killing of the Australian missionary, Graham Staines, and his two sons in Orissa (1999) against what they called ``induced'' and ``forced'' conversions, with Mr. Vajpayee himself calling for a ``national debate'', in an insensitive attempt to deflect the focus from the hate campaign they had been running systematically against the minority community as part of a gameplan to make quick progress on the Hindutva agenda. Less than a year ago, the RSS chief, Mr. K. S. Sudarshan, had rather provocatively called for an ``indigenisation of the church'' and declared that the minority communities could have a ``sense of belonging'' only when they integrated themselves with the ``culture of the land (read the Hindu culture)''. Of course, the official BJP leadership was compelled to distance itself from such an outrageous proposition because of pressure from non-Sangh Parivar partners of the ruling coalition.

In fact, the Prime Minister's latest aspersion on the Christian missionaries, coming as it does in what appears to be a sequential anti-minority campaign, lends further credence to the view that the BJP in power as the head of the coalition is only playing its scripted part, with the Sangh Parivar, especially the RSS, and the other outfits such as the VHP and the Bajrang Dal executing their respective roles in the grand Hindutva design. While Mr. Vajpayee and the Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, do off and on intone, dutifully and in a ritualistic fashion, the Government's commitment to upholding the country's secularist and pluralist traditions, they very often betray their majoritarian bias by suggesting, through a partisan and distorted representation of facts, that the minorities were setting themselves up for trouble because of their proselytisation or ``conspiratorial'' activities. What the BJP's real designs are, become clear in the Centre's carefully-crafted plan to saffronise the education system across the country. It is time the seriousness of the threat, implied in the insidious game the BJP is playing out (in tandem with other outfits of the Sangh Parivar), to the country's secular and pluralistic fabric is realised by the articulate sections of public opinion, particularly the non-Parivar political leadership which sustains the Vajpayee regime.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Next     : End of the BIFR era