Brazen defiance

BY STAGING A forced entry of its activists, led by Mr. Ashok Singhal, into the prohibited area of the disputed site at Ayodhya on Wednesday in defiance of the court-ordained curbs, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has, true to form, thrown yet again an open challenge to the governmental authority and to the law of the land. Mr. Singhal was `candid' enough about it when he said ``we do not accept any such restrictions'' on entry into the cordoned- off site where the make-shift temple is situated. This brazen act, which was meant to underline the VHP's proclaimed intent to go ahead with the construction of the Ram temple (on the very site where the Babri Masjid stood) from March 12, 2002, as decided by the `Dharm Sansad' early this year, is of a piece with the elaborate preparations that have been under way on various fronts to meet the target date, including the one the VHP has mounted to raise a huge army of trishul-wielding personnel. Nothing could be more naive than to dismiss the incident as a mere case of `trespass' committed in a fit of `emotion' by a group of `Ram Bhaktas'. Nor would it do to trot out the much-too- facile explanation, `security lapse', as the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, has chosen to do. The very fact that the intruders could make their way into the sanctum means there has been a breach of security.

The moot point, however, is whether it was a case of mere `lapse' or of `wilful negligence' or - as all credible pointers clearly suggest - of looking the other way. A piece of tell-tale post facto evidence is that the administration did not think it necessary to at least formally take the intruders into custody for what admittedly was a case of trespass. Above all is the stark reality that the VHP's virulent temple campaign eminently fits into, and is perhaps a part of, the BJP's own cynical calculation to `consolidate' the majority community vote in the coming elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly by facilitating the revival of the so-called Ram temple movement. Mr. Vajpayee's promise to the Sangh Parivar to reopen the `Ayodhya cell' in the PMO with the ostensible objective of `resolving' the temple issue and the ban imposed on the extremist minority outfit, the SIMI, have also to be seen in this context.

The position which the VHP and those of its ilk have taken on the Ayodhya issue - that `matters of faith' cannot be determined by the Judiciary - is repugnant to the rule of law and the consensus that seems to have emerged across the political spectrum, apart from the fact that it militates against the Muslim community's rightful claim to reparation in the post-Babri Masjid demolition context. On its part, the BJP has been deliberately prevaricating in its stance. If this, reflecting as it does a ruthless pursuit of a majoritarian exclusivist agenda, is in itself a serious threat to the nation's integrity and secular matrix, the sort of strains the communal equations are likely to come under in the context of the current global anti-terrorism campaign has served to heighten it manifold. Indeed, it needs an extraordinary degree of irresponsibility to see in the prevailing times of uncertainty an opportunity to make sectarian gains and a rare order of perversity to attempt to raise the temperature over Ayodhya - which the VHP appears to be doing without much discomfort. Given the systematic and audacious manner in which passions are sought to be whipped up over `Ayodhya' and the pace at which the construction-related works are proceeding, it is imperative that the Centre realises its responsibility in upholding the Constitution and intervenes effectively, and swiftly, to stop the frenetic campaign for the Ram temple construction. This, in the immediate context, means the Vajpayee regime and the Rajnath Singh Government in Uttar Pradesh should desist from using the Ayodhya card to draw electoral mileage for the BJP.

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