People's Democracy

THE Vishwa Hindu Parishad's call for construction of the temple at Ayodhya from March 15, has once again plunged the country into a crisis with the bloody holocaust in Gujarat. From mid-February thousands of kar sewaks began moving by train towards Ayodhya, spewing hatred against the minority community. The gruesome attack on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra has led to the death of 58 persons, many of them kar sewaks returning from Ayodhya. This planned attack has shocked the country and the perpetrators of this horrific crime have to be identified and brought to justice.

The retaliatory violence which has engulfed Gujarat for the past one week is not a communal riot, but State-sanctioned terror against the entire Muslim community in Gujarat, men, women and children. Gujarat has been the laboratory for the Hindutva forces to experiment with, for their aim of establishing a Hindu rashtra. What has happened in Gujarat is a grim warning of what is in store for the country if these forces are able to consolidate their position at the centre.

The RSS and its progeny, the VHP, are in no way remorseful about the massacre which has taken place in Gujarat. Its pracharak Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has justified the carnage as a reaction to a terrorist act. He has declared that only Hindus can be considered citizens by declaring a compensation of Rs. 2 lakh for the families of the Hindus killed in the Godhra attack, while the families of the Muslims killed in the mass murders will be paid Rs. 1 lakh.

The BJP-RSS refuses to see any connection between the VHP's Ayodhya agitation challenging the secular principle and the rule of law, and the Gujarat pogroms against the minorities. The Vajpayee government was initially on the defensive about the VHP call when the violence erupted in Gujarat. But soon thereafter hectic moves were made to strike a deal with the VHP. The Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, Shri Jayendra Saraswati, is the medium through which the surrender to the VHP is sought to be effected. Unlike what is being projected by the government and a section of the media, the Kanchi Shankaracharya is not a religious figure standing above the two sides in the dispute. He is very much a partisan of the VHP camp, and has been consistently stating that the Hindus cannot accept anything less than the Ram temple at the disputed site.

What the Shankaracharya proposed on March 5 as a solution to the dispute, is nothing but a rehash of the VHP demands. The VHP has long been demanding that it be allowed to start construction from the shilanyas site, on the basis of a blueprint wherein the sanctum sanctorum of the temple would be located at the heart of the Babri Masjid structure. The VHP demanded that part of the acquired land be handed over to it to begin construction, and in turn it was ready to state that it will abide by the court verdict on the title deed case regarding the site where the Babri Masjid stood.

Construction work beginning in any portion of the acquired land with the original site plan would mean that the VHP would construct a major portion of the temple heading towards the site of the Babri Masjid, thus making it a fait accompli before the court verdict comes. This is a carefully crafted game of attrition wherein, step by step, the temple would get constructed, circumventing the law.

The Shankaracharya's proposal is to allow for a puja on March 15, followed by construction activity with the VHP committing to wait for the court verdict as far as the site where the Babri Masjid stood. Such a step would mean that the Vajpayee government is violating the status quo by handing over acquired land to the advantage of the VHP. The land acquired includes the 2.77 acres taken over by the central government, and the surrounding 67 acres earlier acquired by the BJP state government. In the entire area of the acquired land the status quo has to be maintained as per the Supreme Court directive.

Unlike what the Shankaracharya has claimed, there is no indication that the Muslim organisations will accept this new version of the VHP proposal. The central government, which is patronising the Shankaracharya's efforts with George Fernandes having played the role of the facilitator, must know that the country will not tolerate any more interference in what is now a dispute under the purview of the judiciary. After the betrayal by the VHP, the BJP leadership and its state government in UP, and the bitter experience of December 6, 1992, there can be no question of allowing self-proclaimed representatives of religious communities to try to circumvent the law and get the state to sanction it.

Following the Godhra incident, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's efforts to create communal tensions everywhere has not so far succeeded. Their all-India bandh called on March 1, supported by the BJP, did not lead to large-scale disturbances except in Gujarat, as the people refused to get provoked. However, if the central government acts under pressure to allow the VHP to conduct any illegal activity at Ayodhya, the repercussions in the rest of the country can be serious. It is essential therefore for all the Left, democratic and secular forces to campaign unitedly among the people for maintaining communal harmony and to rebuff any attempts at provocation. The non-BJP partners of the NDA cannot keep quiet. They have to respond to the vital question - will they stand up and oppose the VHP-RSS gameplan, or let the Vajpayee government surrender?

In the coming days the secular basis of the Indian republic is going to be put to the test again. All democratic and patriotic forces must unitedly take a stand. There can be no betrayal of secularism and endangering national unity again.