The unfinished issue at Ayodhya has once again returned to the centre stage, and as before, reflects the intransigence of sections of the political elite on the issue of Hindu reassertion and the nations’ foundational ethos. What is also increasingly evident is that the Muslim community is essentially directionless on the issue and that secular politicians are determined to mould it into a separate communalist force for ulterior ends. Yet the resurfacing of Ayodhya presents a golden opportunity to bury the past, and it is to be hoped that our intellectual-political elite can find the moral strength to rise to the occasion.
Be that as it may be, some developments of the past week will no doubt have an enduring impact on the country’s socio-political landscape. The most important of these is the decision of the Maharashtra Government to prosecute the Shiv Sena leader, Mr Bal Thackeray, for his writings during the Bombay riots following the seizure of the Ram Janmabhoomi at Ayodhya, in a case which should normally be time-barred. Equally significant is the ruling BJP’s assiduous attempts to distance itself from the demolition of 6 December 1992, and the estranged former Chief Minister Mr Kalyan Singh’s assertion that the structure was leveled as a result of collusion between top-ranking leaders of the party, the RSS and the VHP.
The BJP’s position is peculiar, and reflects its ambivalence over the issue that catapulted it to the top of the political ladder. Even if one factors in the party’s concern that its senior leaders (and members of the Union Cabinet) should not be indicted by the on-going commission on enquiry, it is not clear what it hopes to gain by disowning that civilisational-historical milestone. In fairness, it may be added that subsequent revelations have added mystery to the event.
Looking back, one recalls that all meaningful camera-video footage was destroyed that day through focused action against photographers, and it strains credulity to believe this was the spontaneous action of the assembled masses. With hindsight, even impartial observers would conclude that something was expected, and that an organised mind was ensuring non-documentation of the event.
Press reports, however, are contradictory. We have reports of an exultant Sadhvi Ritambara and Ms Uma Bharati hugging each other as the domes were scaled, as well as descriptions of a dismayed BJP-RSS leadership staring in disbelief as the dismantling began. A few hours later Mr LK Advani repudiated the event on behalf of the BJP by resigning as Leader of the Opposition, and it was only weeks later that he re-identified his party with the sentiment (though not the action) behind the forceful reclamation of the site. To this day there has been no explanation how the implements used reached that highly fortified site under the noses of the security contingents. And even after President’s rule was imposed, the para-military forces were not deployed till the next morning, by which time a makeshift temple had come up and all debris cleared.
To their own surprise, the Hindus recovered the site. VHP leaders have privately told me that the legendary Deoraha Baba had foreseen a precipitate conclusion to the saga and advised them to ensure that whenever it unfolded, their task was to ensure that the rubble was immediately removed, or the reclamation would fail. They plead ignorance of the identity of the demolition squad.
Curiously, former Home Minister Mr SB Chavan has disclosed that the then Prime Minister, Mr PV Narasimha Rao, specifically prohibited Central intervention at the site from the time that the domes were attacked, delayed the cabinet meeting on the issue, and insisted on a wait-and-watch approach that facilitated erection of the makeshift temple. There have been persistent reports that a large and highly motivated contingent of kar sevaks from Andhra Pradesh was behind the event. Indeed, the BJP has recently floated this in its official publication BJP Today, and has even claimed endorsement from former MP, Mr Syed Shahabuddin!
Clearly there is more to the story than meets the eye. Only the previous year, scores of kar sevaks were literally mowed down by the Mulayam Singh Government after two youths from Gujarat scaled the domes and waved a saffron flag. These casualties were then owned as martyrs by the Sangh Parivar. In 1992, however, they passed the buck to Mr Narasimha Rao by invoking a crowd from Andhra Pradesh. Curiously, prominent VHP leaders have a great relationship with a famous godman from the State, who is otherwise known for his patronage of Congress leaders. A truth commission and a general amnesty would help establish if there was a larger consensus at work behind the 1992 watershed, and the Indian intellectual-political establishment would do the nation a yeoman service to stop painting Ayodhya as a criminal offence.
This brings us to the Maharashtra Government’s sudden decision to invoke the law against Mr Bal Thackeray for allegedly inflammatory writings in 1993, when Mumbai witnessed serial bomb blasts (and the dramatic escape of the Tiger Memon family), and communal riots. Incidentally, Mr Sharad Pawar, the then Chief Minister, refused to sanction prosecution against Mr Thackeray. Today, though the State Home Minister, Mr Chhagan Bhujpal, is from Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party, the fact is that the former Shiv Sena man is also close to the ruling Congress party. As such, the decision to prosecute Mr Thackeray must be seen as part of the Congress party’s desire to regain its once captive Muslim votebank. The timing of the move is also suspect. It comes right on the heels of the CBI’s success in linking the bomb blasts in churches in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to Pakistan’s IS1, a disclosure that cannot have gone down well with those hoping to gain from a communal divide in the country.
Of course, the question arises why Congress should target the Shiv Sena chief in Mumbai rather than the BJP and its associates in New Delhi. The answer is that the BJP has proved a poor guardian of legitimate Hindu sentiments, as evidenced in the manner in which Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee rushed to the Vatican in the wake of unsubstantiated charges against the Sangh Parivar, particularly the VHP. Now, with CBI revelations about the role of the Deendar Anjuman and the ISI, it is to be hoped that the Prime Minister will remove advisers found to have egg on their faces.
In contrast to the BJP’s blow hot, blow cold hindutva, Mr Bal Thackeray has consistently exemplified the ancient Hindu respect for power as a means to sustain dharma. Committed to revitalizing the Vedic value of valour (virya.), it is hardly surprising that he alone among contemporary leaders dared to “own” the December 6, 1992 incident. Mr Thackeray’s writings cannot in fairness be disconnected from the perspective of Mumbai’s serial blasts and the intervention of a foreign agency in this country’s affairs.
The Government, security agencies’, political parties and all right thinking citizens must be sensitive to the ISI’s sustained attempts to utilize a particular community for its anti-India activities, and tackle the issue maturely, without needlessly communalizing it. Any attempt to mould the Muslim community into a separate political force would be dangerously counter-productive. On its part, Muslims would do well to heed the advice of some of their own leaders and begin a new chapter by ending the negationism over Ayodhya. The unused mosque cannot be restored. But a new temple can be built.
The Pioneer, 18 July 2000