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What have the communalists learnt from Staines' murder?
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Whatever the shortcomings of Gen. Musharraf's much awaited address to the nation might have been, he has at least openly come out to condemn and curtail the activities from Pakistani soil of those spreading terrorism in the name of religion within the country or outside. Within India the challenge is now before our leaders to reciprocate the gesture by banning those who openly challenge the Supreme Court or the government on Ram temple and similar issues and those who spare no efforts to terrorise the minorities in the name of majoritarianism.
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THE THIRD anniversary of the now nearly forgotten gruesome murder of Graham Staines and his two sons, Timothy and Philip, falls on January 23. The President, K. R. Narayanan, had then described this repulsive act as "one belonging to the inventory of black deeds of history" and as "monumental aberration from the tradition of tolerance and humanity for which India is known." The act was condemned universally by most people. Some of our leaders, though, who are now busy with the rhetoric of fighting terrorism, had post-haste either given clean chit to the accused militant groups or had suspected a `foreign hand' in it.
To make the awesome tragedy of that `monumental aberration' worse, the prime accused in the murder, Dara Singh, though currently in police custody, has announced, in full view of the TV cameras, that he is going to contest the forthcoming elections from Uttar Pradesh. If the reports are to be believed he is going to contest them, not from one but two constituencies — Ghaziabad and Muzaffarnagar. According to Dara Singh himself, "... it will be decided by the Dara Sena in Delhi as to which constituency I would be asked to contest from."
Internal terrorism
The Dara Sena, formed after the `darkest deed', and which has been glorifying the burning of Staines family by distributing literature calling him "Dharam Rakshak (protector of religion) born among us", is the sign of the extent to which the `monumental aberration' is spreading. It is equally ironic that the government which is busy fighting cross-border terrorism and the civil society have so far been just mute spectators to this horrible build-up of internal terrorism against minorities. Such silence is only providing the required fuel to those who have no qualms of conscience in doing what they are doing.
One cannot expect those hailing Dara Singh as a hero and protector of Hinduism to either know or appreciate the saintly widow and mother of her two brutally murdered sons, Gladys Staines' reaction within hours of that ugly incident: "In the name of Jesus I forgive those who committed this crime and may they experience in their hearts God's forgiving love."
Last week, the senior VHP leader, Giriraj Kishore, maintained that he had no problem with Dara Singh contesting the elections. While such a statement shows what their priority in civic life is, another senior VHP leader went one step further to add, "it was not only Islamic fundamentalism which was threatening the country, but the Christian missionaries involved in conversion were as dangerous as Islamic terrorists" (January 11, Asian Age).
It is also Giriraj Kishore who had expressed his views on November 4, 2001 incident of thousands of Dalits, under the leadership of Ram Raj (now Udit Raj), converting to Buddhism. "We have no objection to anyone converting to Buddhism because it is an Indian religion. We have problem only when they convert to Islam or Christianity, because these are alien religions...", he had said. Little does he know that the Catholic Church, which otherwise celebrates World Day of Peace on January 1 internationally, specifically chooses January 30 every year, the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi, to observe it in the Indian Church. But the rhetoric of these people must go on and in view of the forthcoming elections in some States, this can be fruitfully used as proper fodder for the gullible masses. The communal card is being used by all and sundry to woo the voters as the evidence from several recent incidents suggests.
`Ominous signals'
For example, the people of the most literate Indian State, Kerala, are becoming seriously concerned about communal tension raising its ugly head in a State which has had relatively clean history as far as communal clashes are concerned. The recent clashes in Kannur and Kozhikode which the editorial of The Hindu (January 8) referred to as `ominous signals' is evidence of traces of `monumental aberration' surfacing in that part of the country too. As in the past, after inflaming communal riots the blame is conveniently passed on to the victims of violence as was the case in the Dangs district of Gujarat three years ago and with most of the atrocities (more than 400 in the past four years, according to Home Ministry sources) against Christians. The BJP Rajya Sabha MP, B. L. Prem Sharma, who later converted to Sikhism, on hearing of the Jhabua nuns' rape case, had declared that the nuns had only deserved it and that it was an angry reaction of Hindus to Christian missionaries' conversion work. Thus the current support to Dara Singh is not really a new phenomenon which the civil society unfortunately has not been able to contain yet.
Another hot spot
Rajasthan, which has had a fine record of communal harmony so far, is becoming another hot spot of Hindu-Muslim clashes. Last year a mosque was demolished in Bhilwara. From the New Year's Day, the tension has shifted from Bhilwara to Shekawati region. The Sangh Parivar is having a field day in that region where, during the consecutive bandhs organised by communal outfits, anti-Muslim slogans branding Muslims as having links with the ISI and other terrorist groups in Pakistan, have become music to the ears of those promoting the likes of Dara Singh.
If Rajasthan and Kerala, both Congress-ruled States, were not enough, the trouble is also brewing in two districts of another Congress-ruled State — Madhya Pradesh. Large numbers of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal activists are preparing for a big showdown in the villages of Jhabua and Alirajpur. Anti-Christian and anti-missionary literature, spewing poison, is being distributed to the tribals by the tonnes in the region. That these are being done selectively in the Congress-ruled States is for everyone to see and analyse.
Similar issues against the Christian missionaries and Muslims are also being raised in Uttaranchal where the vernacular papers are full of material against the Christian missionary work and the `madrasas'. In Uttar Pradesh itself, the communal forces have not been able to quite make up their mind whether to take up the issue of terrorism combined with POTO or war with Pakistan or indeed to go for a kill with the Babri Masjid-Ram temple issue.
The question of course is, are all these well coordinated and planned efforts emanating from some central source reflecting the `national sentiment' to `finish the unfinished task', furthering `cultural nationalism', or has it anything to do with the selfless commitment to the nation building in a secular society?
Whatever the shortcomings of Gen. Musharraf's much awaited address to the nation might have been, he has at least openly come out to condemn and curtail the activities from Pakistani soil of those spreading terrorism in the name of religion within the country or outside. Within India the challenge is now before our leaders to reciprocate the gesture by banning those who openly challenge the Supreme Court or the government on Ram temple and similar issues and those who spare no efforts to terrorise the minorities in the name of majoritarianism, including distribution of trishuls to lakhs of unemployed youths in the Hindi belt.
Insurmountable challenge
In this context, those who believe in the existence of a secular society and would like to preserve the multi-religious character of this great nation are of course faced with an almost insurmountable challenge to stop this venom from spreading further. Insaani Ekta Muhim, Amar Pakshi, Citizens for Democracy, Justice and Peace Commissions of Delhi Archdiocese and of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, Gandhi Yuva Biradiri, Lok Dasta, People's Union for Civil Liberties, Saheli and many other NGOs are trying their best to raise a sane voice in the midst of the communal frenzy. One can often hear their helpless cries as making no headway.
Among their cries of helplessness is also heard a whisper that media does not always give space to their voice and appeal for peace. Such a complaint was made by people like Rafiq Zakaria and Shabana Azmi when during the Afghan war, their voice found hardly any space in the mainstream media as opposed to that of Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid in Delhi. As one sending out press releases regularly promoting peace, I share painfully in the voice about the lack of cooperation from the media managers who always have a `big problem with space' in the newspapers or in the electronic media.
Unless more groups put in their efforts with greater vigour and unless there is a positive cooperation from the mass media, it is Dara Singh and his ilk promoting terrorism within the country, including acts such as vandalising the Taj Mahal, who will have the last laugh.
DOMINIC EMMANUEL
Spokesman, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, New Delhi
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