The Hindu : Ban the VHP and Bajrang Dal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2002

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Ban the VHP and Bajrang Dal

THE STORMING OF the Orissa Assembly complex on March 16 by the trishul-wielding activists of the VHP and its associate, the Bajrang Dal, is yet another reminder of the sinister and dangerous nature of the Sangh Parivar's game plan — not to spare even the hallowed symbols of democratic authority from its intimidatory tactics of physical assault and vandalisation while pursuing its Ayodhya agenda. The Vajpayee Government, as also the nation in general, had some sense of reprieve that the much-dreaded March 15 had passed peacefully, what with the scaled-down `shila daan' having taken place at a spot away from the controversial 67-acre complex following a compromise worked out at the eleventh hour. But the VHP, which has not bothered to conceal its contempt for such Constitutional niceties and basic democratic norms as the rule of law, secularism and minority rights, has left no one in doubt about its intentions. In no mood to wait for the legal tangle to be resolved — this, despite its reported (written) commitment to abide by the court verdict — and having whipped up communal passions calculatedly over a sequenced mobilisation programme spread over a year, the VHP has made known its intention to take the `temple issue' to the streets.

It must be recognised that for the VHP and others in the Sangh Parivar, building a Ram temple in Ayodhya is a critical part of its revanchist agenda and, more importantly, a high potential emotion-charged rallying point for the majority community, a useful strategy to perpetuate its aggressive design of a Hindu Rashtra. Beyond the general run of hate campaigns associated with the Hindutva forces, the hysteria built up over `Ayodhya' through a calibrated mobilisation endeavour invoking religious imagery — that included plans to raise a huge army of trishul-toting activists — necessarily had a much sharper edge for the reason that the Muslims have a direct stake in the dispute. The key instrument in all this manifestly unlawful venture (from the standpoint of public order and communal harmony) has been the VHP, with other saffron outfits such as the Bajrang Dal playing their supportive roles. It is not only that the VHP's provocative and intimidatory ways in the runup to the March 15 Ayodhya event turned most parts of the country, not just Uttar Pradesh, into communal tinder boxes, as it were, but its cadres and activities went on an unchecked minority-specific killing spree in Gujarat under the pretext of `retaliation' for the Godhra carnage. Post-March 15, the VHP's temple campaign has shown distinct signs of becoming more strident and abrasive, as evidenced by the vicious attacks on the minority community witnessed in quite a few States, not to speak of the continuing violence in Baroda (Gujarat) and the Bhubaneswar incident.

Given such hard evidence of the VHP's blatantly aggressive, law-defying and authority-challenging actions that have grave implications for the core of India's secular and plural democracy, there is an unassailable case for imposing a ban on the outfit. As a matter of fact, the day its international working president, Ashok Singhal, along with a band of his camp followers, barged into the prohibited area of the makeshift temple on the disputed site (October 17, 2001) signalling their intention, the ground for a ban had been laid. Considering that the Indian Constitution has mandated a secular and democratic framework, any organisation that has as its mission the promotion of hostility between religions is patently anti-national in the sense that it seeks to undermine nationhood from within — the VHP and the Bajrang Dal (which are from the RSS stable) doubtless fit into this category. Just as the Vajpayee administration clamped a ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) six months ago for its subversive activities, the overwhelming compulsion at this critical moment is to ban the VHP and the Bajrang Dal for their devastating and destructive challenge to national unity.

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