Vandalism at the Taj

THE ACTS OF vandalism perpetrated on the premises of the Taj Mahal last Sunday by some elements of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, which have prompted judicial intervention, are extremely disturbing for two reasons. First is, of course, the fact that the nation's priceless and most prestigious monument of cultural heritage has become vulnerable to attacks by unruly mobs, which points sharply to the parlous state of the security and regulatory mechanisms. Add to it the insidious threat the edifice has already come under because of the polluting industries located in its vicinity - and which is vigorously sought to be mitigated by the apex court through judicious interventions from time to time - the picture is complete, a matter of heightened concern. The second reason, and one that is potentially more dangerous to India's secular and pluralist identity, is that the incident represents a new benchmark in the audacity displayed by the Sangh Parivar in attacking the religious minorities, their places of worship and their symbols, a trend perceivable ever since the BJP made it to the seat of power at the Centre as the lead coalition partner. It has emerged that even a famed national heritage like the Taj, which - as the Supreme Court noted - belonged to the ``whole of India and all communities'', may not really be safe, given the sheer intolerance of the Hindutva forces and the virulent hate campaign they are running on a sustained basis.

What sets the Taj episode apart from other instances of the Sangh Parivar-linked vandalism is that the perpetrators manifestly belonged to the youth wing of the BJP (which was holding its two- day convention at Agra), not to its ideological fountainhead, the RSS, nor to its more aggressive cousins, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal - the ones that have mostly come in for adverse notice, either directly or indirectly, in the various acts of violence, serious and not-so-serious, targeting the religious minorities reported across the country - from the demolition of the Babri Masjid to attacks on Christian institutions in Dangs to the murder of Graham Staines and his two sons, not to speak of the numerous cases of desecration/destruction of churches and mosques in remote areas. With the suspected involvement of the cadre of its Yuva Morcha, the BJP can no longer have the luxury of distancing itself from the abrasively anti-minority ways of the likes of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, something it has been trying to do for sustaining itself in power as the head of the ideologically-compromised National Democratic Alliance. And this, even granting that the youth wing, as an organisation, was not behind the vandalism.

To say that it was the irrational fringe elements of the BJYM that went on the ramapage, as such elements tend to do irrespective of their organisational affiliation, is to forget the heavy dose of Hindutva-concentrate that was administered to them at the Agra convention which obviously provided the motivational urge to do what they did. It should not be difficult to comprehend the serious implications of the negative signal the BJYM elements' handiwork is bound to send to the minority communities, specifically the Muslims, given the atmosphere of unease and uncertainty the current global anti-terrorism campaign has engendered in them. Set the Taj episode along with the VHP's palpable foolhardiness in going ahead with its calibrated Ayodhya-temple project (to climax in the start of temple construction in March next year) - it has already got the first phase (`jalabhishek' programme in select temples) going - and the Sangh Parivar's utter insensitivity to the genuine concerns of the minority community will stand out bold and clear. And this only gets further accentuated when viewed in the context of the alacrity with which the Centre clamped a ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) for its allegedly subversive activities and perceived links with pan-Islamic terrorist outfits, a punitive action that contrasted sharply with its refusal to apply the same yardstick to the Bajrang Dal which is spreading hate.

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