A tryst with India's communal past
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - The demolition of the Babri Masjid (mosque) by Hindu fanatics on
December 6, 1992, at Ayodhya in the northern province of Uttar Pradesh is a
blot on India's contemporary history.
It exposed the underbelly of dirty communal, caste and minority politics that
peaked in the 1990s even as some tapering of this vicious agenda has taken
place over the past four to five years.
This week, 17 years after being appointed on December 16, 1992, to probe the
conspiracy leading to the destruction of the mosque, M S Liberhan, then a judge
of the Punjab and Haryana High
Court, submitted his findings to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
As per the statutes the government will need to declare the contents of the
report within the next six months.
Though India has witnessed much worse, such as the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 and
the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 in which hundreds were massacred, the
destruction of the Babri Masjid was a symbolic insult to the minority Muslim
community in India and demonstrated the failure of the state machinery to
protect the same.
It was a brutal misuse of people's faith to promote obscurantism for immediate
political gains.
The serial Mumbai blasts of 1993 orchestrated by underworld dons such as Dawood
Ibrahim was a reaction to the mosque being razed to the ground.
The radical communal politics that followed led to the emergence of the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a right-wing national party.
The BJP went on to win elections and ruled under the moderate face of former
prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, which was necessary to win the support of
allies in a coalition government.
The other BJP stalwart, Lal Krishna Advani, meanwhile, plotted aggressive
Hindutva moves, an ideology rooted in majority Hindu rule to ensure the vote
bank.
Originally, Liberhan was supposed to prepare the report in a few weeks. But in
the end it took 399 sittings, 100 witnesses, 48 extensions and enormous wads of
public money.
Liberhan has defended himself, blaming instead stalling and obstructionist
maneuvers to derail the probe.
In the 1990's, when Justice Liberhan summoned top Sangh Parivar (pro-Hindutva
outfits such as VHP, RSS) leaders, he faced a High Court stay order.
Over four years, various federal governments could not get the stay vacated.
Meanwhile, former chief minister of UP Kalyan Singh, who has since switched
political loyalties, has been criticized for avoiding the inquiry panel.
When finally quizzed, Kalyan told the commission that the demolition of Babri
was an “act of god”, for which he had no regrets.
“Historians will write that the devotees of Lord Ram, devotees of the nation
had demolished the symbol of slavery and disgrace, though this demolition was
not expected. It was purely sudden and totally unplanned,” he said.
The Babri Mosque was built on the remains of a temple of important Hindu god
Lord Ram in Ayodhya by India's erstwhile Muslim rulers a few centuries back.
Though some historians say the existence of the temple is hearsay, most,
including the Archaeological Survey of India, confirm its existence predating
the demolished mosque by over a thousand years.
Liberhan examined the role of Advani in fueling a volatile situation that
ultimately lead to the demolition of the mosque, which some Hindus also believe
to be original the birth place of Lord Ram.
Advani has been accused of leading a Rath Yatra (chariot tour) to rally
support, despite court injunctions against such a move.
He is also blamed for failing to control the crowds he mobilized.
Other front-ranking Hindutva leaders (of the sangh parivar) who stand indicted
include Uma Bharti, Murli Manohar Joshi, Ashok Singhal and Vinay Katiyar. The
Congress Party, under the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, had been
criticized for “inaction” and allegedly “sleeping'' through the demolition,
despite intelligence reports of attempts to destroy the mosque.
Ironically, the Liberhan report has been submitted when sectarian politics in
India is on the wane, as highlighted by the successive defeat of the BJP in
federal elections in 2004 and again this year.
The BJP today is a shadow of its former self, having failed to sense the pulse
of a nation wanting change, stability, growth, income and better living
conditions.
The near exit of Vajpayee and Advani from the political scene has resulted in
severe infighting amongst the younger leadership, comprised of Narender Modi,
Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley.
The party's politics of religious polarization, a reaction to caste and
pseudo-secularist approach of other political outfits that had paid rich
dividends in the past has boomeranged.
The party got in completely wrong by backing BJP leader Varun Gandhi's
vituperative ``hate speech'' against Muslims in the run up to the general
elections.
The BJP's attempts to turn a religious issue into a political one have failed.
A wizened electorate voted for Congress again this year in the hope of a
national policy focus, development and stable government under the leadership
of Manmohan and party leader Sonia Gandhi.
Regional parties with limited and parochial notions about national issues have
been sidelined. The emergence of regional satraps such as Mayawati of Uttar
Pradesh, who rides on caste politics, has been blunted.
At the same time, leaders and parties in states such as Bihar, Delhi and
Orissa, which have provided corruption-free pro-growth governance, have emerged
victorious.
Some observers have said that the Liberhan report is too little too late as the
BJP, the main target of the inquiry is not in power and the octogenarian Advani
has been ruled out of the political stakes with his ambition to be prime
minister dashed.
Some Hindutva leaders are already dead and so is Narasimha Rao.
It would have been a completely different matter had the BJP been leading the
government when the Liberhan findings were submitted. The findings could have
had a much more incendiary impact.
However, the report could still be a silver lining for the BJP if it plays its
cards right.
The emerging leadership of the BJP could distance themselves from the findings
of the Liberhan report, calling the mosque incident a mistake of the past that
needs to be rectified.
The fact remains that the development record of the BJP at the federal level
and as head of provincial governments is not bad.
But, its skewed political approach and habit of looking at short cuts to power
has shrouded its good performance and engendered suspicions in the minds of the
electorate.
The emerging BJP will have to check the sway of radical outfits such as VHP and
RSS.
If the BJP, as the main opposition, plays it right and shuns its communal
politics, there is every-likelihood that the country will head towards a
two-party system and away from the squabbles that invariably accompany
coalitions.
Though the Congress has won the elections this year, it cannot afford to be
complacent.
Performance expectations are high as Manmohan aggressively tries to pursue an
agenda, even as the party has somewhat diluted the tag of being
pseudo-secularist due to its pro-minority political slant.
There is no doubt that the BJP has to get its act together, in the interests of
a healthy democracy and to keep the Congress in check.
So far, the signs are not good.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist. He can be reached
at sidsri@yahoo.com
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