Ominous rumblings

THE BLATANTLY PROVOCATIVE attempt by VHP and Bajrang Dal activists to perform a `yajna' at a site close to the Quwwat-ul- Islam mosque in the historic Qutb Minar complex in Delhi is an unambiguous and ominous signal that the Sangh Parivar is determined to push its revanchist agenda of ``liberating'' Hindu shrines by force. What ultimately saved the day for the civil administration and the people was the timely intervention by an alert police. Qualitatively, it provided a throwback to such intimidatory episodes the saffron brigade had enacted a few years ago in Mathura and Varanasi, where its targets have been the Shahi Masjid Idgah and the Gyanvapi mosque which are a part, respectively, of the Krishna and Viswanath temple complexes. By employing the medium of elaborate and extensively mobilised rituals to synchronise with important religious festivals such as Mahashivratri and Janmashtami, it drummed up a high voltage campaign calculated to raise the communal temperature. That the trauma of a communal showdown was averted, thanks to a firm handling of the situation by the Governments of the day and, partly, to a tactical retraction by the saffron outfits concerned is a different story. Unlike in Mathura and Varanasi, there is no famed Hindu shrine involved in the VHP's Delhi `operation', but only an `ancient and long neglected' idol of Ganesh, and its ostensible aim is to perform a puja and thereby, presumably, establish a new custom; the defiant intrusion itself is backed by the much- too-familiar claim that the mosque had been built after razing to the ground over a score of Hindu and Jain temples. Moreover, the Qutb Minar complex is a historical momunent being protected and maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India as a national heritage. And this adds a new and more disturbing dimension to the Sangh Parivar's revanchist designs.

It was in 1991 that the Centre got a special law enacted (in the context of the Ayodhya imbroglio) to freeze the religious status of the places of worship as on August 15, 1947. But this legal bar had not restrained the likes of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal not only from proclaiming their commitment to the ``liberation'' agenda but also from embarking upon specific programmes from time to time to reaffirm it. As for the BJP, whose leadership had not hesitated to talk of converting ``not three (meaning Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi) but 3000 mosques'', its public posturing on the issue has always been determined by political exigencies and electoral compulsions. In recent years, whether it is the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya or the `liberation' of Varanasi and Mathura shrines or, for that matter, the revocation of the 1991 Act, ``not on our agenda at present'' has generally been its refrain, the strategy being to distance itself from the adventurist initiatives of its saffron cousins. And the party leadership found it electorally expedient to formalise this `ideological dissociation' when it felt compelled to look for an inclusive political platform and its strategy did work.

Whatever be the formal position the BJP takes vis-a-vis the Hindutva plank in the present coalition context, the fact remains that the majoritarian fundamentalist elements have felt emboldened to pursue their agenda aggressively and, not unoften, in flagrant violation of law. In fact, the BJP leaders in the top echelons of Government have had little compunction in flaunting their RSS badges and swearing by the divisive ideology it stood for. Witness for instance Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee's ``I-am-a- swayamsevak'' declaration and Mr. L. K. Advani's assertion that the BJP-RSS relationship was unsnappable. The VHP's Delhi operation, suggesting a new initiative to reactivate the `liberation' agenda, needs to be seen in the wider context of the Sangh Parivar's gameplan as it has been emerging of late. It is for the political forces that have a commitment to the plurality and secular character of the Indian polity to recognise the ominous challenge and to fight it on all fronts.

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