Opinion - Editorials   

Dangerously partisan

THE PRIME MINISTER, Atal Behari Vajpayee's emphatic "we are for a (Ram) temple at Ayodhya", which in one sense is a manifestation of the inner `swayamsevak' core of his persona, assumes enormous significance when viewed in the context of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's current and highly provocative campaign with the objective of starting the temple construction forthwith, whatever be the legal injunctions. Add to it, the Centre's recent application to the Supreme Court — since adjourned to March 6 for hearing — seeking vacation of its interim order (passed last year) banning any "religious activity, either symbolic or actual" on the acquired land and pleading for an "early" disposal by a larger bench of the pending petition so that the `status' of the so-called `undisputed' parts of the acquired area is judicially determined. What emerges is a sinister and partisan design by the Vajpayee Government to make way for the VHP and other pro-temple forces to execute their plan of having a mandir built at the very site where the Babri Masjid had stood before December 6, 1992 — their demand for immediate access to the `undisputed' land to enable the beginning of temple construction is nothing but the proverbial thin end of the wedge. The situation as is evolving on the Ayodhya front, right from the time the VHP gave an ultimatum to the Centre to clear the legal decks for the restoration of the `undisputed' land, and the Vajpayee regime's responses to it are strikingly similar to what the nation witnessed this time last year as to suggest a game plan under which the VHP and the BJP (as head of the ruling coalition) are only playing out the roles scripted for them as part of the Sangh Parivar's majoritarian agenda.

What is even more dangerous about Mr. Vajpayee's remarks on Ayodhya — at an election meeting in Himachal Pradesh — is that he had harked back to the Hindutva forces' all-too-familiar claim of "historical evidence" to establish that a temple pre-existed the demolished mosque, although he did leave the final decision to the Judiciary. Irrespective of whether the legal claim itself is sustainable, the very proposition that prior existence or antiquity could be a legitimate and over-riding determinant in resolving an Ayodhya-like dispute is outrageous and unacceptable. In a larger sense, not only would it mean in the case of Ayodhya rewarding the very forces of Hindu chauvinism that vandalised the mosque in a brazen defiance of law and the Constitution, it would also open the floodgates of revenge of medieval vintage, an urge to avenge and undo perceived or imagined historic wrongs committed centuries ago. The VHP has been quite emphatic about its resolve to "liberate" a few thousands of Hindu shrines, big and small, from the hold of the minority community, the more famed among them being those in Varanasi and Mathura. In fact, the special law (passed in the wake of the Ayodhya dispute) for the protection of places of worship all over the country was intended specifically to save them from the sort of fate that befell the Babri mosque at the hands of revanchist elements. But then, the 1991 enactment has made little impact on the likes of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal which have always been contemptuous of the law of the land and basic democratic values, an attitude that has acquired a strong element of abrasiveness under the partisan rule of the BJP-led coalition at the Centre. For its part, the BJP, as a party, has of course been distancing itself, for the record, from the VHP and its aggressive campaign, while at the Government level, its leadership has sought to maintain, unconvincingly, that it continued to be committed to the coalition's agenda of governance. Now, by harking back to the dangerous `prior existence' theory in relation to Ayodhya, Mr. Vajpayee has, apart from betraying his majoritarian mindset, in fact sought to rationalise and lend support to the revanchist designs of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News: | Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Dangerously partisan
• Dubai and deportation
• The U.N. stays relevant
• Cultural globalisation
• Privacy in the time of celebrity
• France scores a diplomatic coup
• India's forward policy
• Query to a CM
• Identity crisis
• Diseased politics
• Protecting VIPs

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu