The Hindu : Upholding the rule of law

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 20, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Upholding the rule of law

BY ENSURING THAT the storm troopers mobilised by the Hindu Jagran Manch (yet another outfit floated by the Sangh Parivar to whip up passions in the name of religion) in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district were not allowed to go ahead with their provocative plans, the Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, has displayed his commitment to the canons of the rule of law. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had left no one in doubt about its intentions when Pravin Togadia was despatched to Dhar a couple of months ago. Mr. Togadia's brief in this instance was to lay the ground for yet another campaign, on revanchist lines, over the Bhojshala-Kamal Moula mosque and use this to vitiate the political atmosphere in Madhya Pradesh on communal lines as was done by the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and other associates of the Sangh Parivar during the mid-1980s over the Ayodhya issue. The time chosen by the VHP too was significant. Coming as it did when parties have begun their preparations for the State Assembly elections, there are valid grounds to conclude that the VHP's campaign has more to do with forcing a communal polarisation in Madhya Pradesh and thus enabling the BJP to register substantial gains. The game plan is to achieve a sharp divide as was done in Gujarat post-Godhra. The measures taken by the State Government in Dhar and the fact that the crowd which gathered there was prevented from causing any damage to the disputed structure indicates that despite the disturbing indications of some wavering, the Digvijay Singh dispensation remains at the core committed to the principle of the rule of law.

The fact that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had declared the structure a protected monument would mean that the duty to protect it (not just from stray acts by vandals but also from outfits wedded to revanchist ideas, such as the VHP in this case) is vested in not just the State Government. The Union Ministry for Human Resource Development under Murli Manohar Joshi (of which the ASI is a part) is as much responsible for protecting the structure and in this sense the Central Government too is bound to ensure its safety. Mr. Digvijay Singh has done the right thing by publicising all the records, including those to establish that the ASI itself had stated before the Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court that "the factual identity of the present structure (Bhojshala) was not definitely known, nor could it be ascertained from a study of the structure itself". It was, after all, on this basis that the ASI had sought before the courts to restrict entry into the structure in such fashion that Muslims were allowed only to offer prayers on Fridays and the Hindus on the day of Basant Panchami. Hence, there was no way that the State Government could have let the crowd mobilised by the VHP and its associates enter the premises on any day other than Basant Panchami. This was the rule laid down by the courts based on a case presented by the ASI, a body consisting of professional archaeologists, in order to save the monument from wanton destruction.

The VHP's designs, in this case, are not too different from its Ayodhya campaign where the Sangh Parivar's approach was one of rendering the principle of the rule of law subservient to what its leaders would describe as "popular sentiments" and facilitate the BJP to convert this into electoral gains. Sinister games such as these cannot be allowed in a democratic set-up and this is where the measures taken by the State Government in Madhya Pradesh warrant appreciation.

It must be recognised that in the ultimate analysis, it is a strict adherence to the rule of law and the Constitution that is the best protection against disintegrative and dangerous phenomena such as communalism.

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