People's Democracy

THE Vajpayee government may have won the vote in the Lok Sabha defeating the censure motion moved by the opposition condemning the State-sponsored genocide in Gujarat. But on all counts, the Vajpayee government has lost the debate.

Speaker after speaker from the opposition directly castigated the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat not only on account of complicity but charging the state government with planning and executing the worst anti-Muslim pogrom witnessed in independent India. Narrating shocking accounts of human debasement, corroborated by evidence brought out by innumerable independent groups and the National Human Rights Commission, the opposition systematically and completely exposed the Vajpayee government's deliberate refusal to intervene to restore normalcy in the state. Often during the debate, the BJP and its saffron siblings were likened with the Nazis.

The defence put up by the members of the ruling alliance was pathetic most of the time. On occasions, it reached a frenzied crescendo of not merely justifying but hailing the fascistic genocide of the minorities in Gujarat. Such was the fascistic rhetoric that it would have done Hitler proud. A leading political commentator said, the ruling party benches showed "more aggression than logic in their arguments".

In the face of such shameless defence of Narendra Modi, many of the NDA allies joined the "sack Modi" chorus and made a direct attack on the Vajpayee government for its failure to stop the continuing carnage in Gujarat and for abdicating its constitutional responsibility.

With Ram Vilas Paswan having resigned a day earlier, the Telugu Desam, National Conference and sections of Janata Dal (United) walking out or abstaining on the motion, and the Trinamul Congress, displaying crass opportunism, voting with the government while demanding Modi's ouster, the NDA was virtually a divided house. What saved the day for the Vajpayee government however, was, as a political commentator writes: "They (NDA allies) were not yet ready to stand up and be counted".

It is this lust for power and the eagerness to share the spoils of office amongst the NDA allies that spells their political doom. The people are no longer going to be fooled by secular rhetoric which virtually allows the communal forces to continue to remain in power and thus perpetrate ghastly and inhuman pogroms. The political opportunism of the NDA allies has touched a new nadir.

The Vajpayee government having no logical defence for justifying the Gujarat carnage, fielded the likes of Uma Bharati to lead the government's defence. Such was the content of her speech that former prime minister Chandra Shekhar charged that she had spoken more like a "Nazi volunteer" than a Sanyasin indicating that her speech was a disgrace to the saffron robes that she displays.

The thrust of the united opposition charge was that the carnage in Gujarat reflected not a mere break down of the law and order, but a deeper and sinister attempt to destroy the secular democratic foundations of modern India. The saffron brigade was creating a situation where it wants the religious minorities in India to live at their mercy, accepting their dictates and not as equal citizens of a republic. The opposition castigated the Vajpayee government for placing the interests of the RSS and the saffron brigade above that of the unity and integrity of India.

Vajpayee & Co. having decided to brazen out the debate, confident of the numbers in the House, fell back on indefensible arguments. The prime minister was pointedly asked why, as leader of the House, he failed to move a resolution condemning the Godhra incident on February 28th morning. Since there were no answers to questions like this, the ruling alliance members fell back on the only argument they had, that is, such violence took place in the past as well, particularly under the Congress rule. Once again, they had no answer when the opposition grilled him to explain how earlier riots could be used to justify the current ongoing Gujarat carnage.

The prime minister, suffering as he is from an acute attack of megalomania, skirted the main issues raised by the opposition. Instead, he announced a package for relief and rehabilitation of Rs 150 crores. Inadequate as it is (the economic loss of the minority community has been estimated by independent sources to be in the range of at least Rs 3000 crores), this amount is to be distributed by the very same Modi administration which, in the first place, planned and executed this inhuman anti-Muslim pogrom. Some justice!

Obsessed with himself, the prime minister went through a convoluted exercise to show that he never discriminates (sic) on the basis of religion, birth or caste. He bemoans, "This is the cycle of politics, that my dignity is tarnished". He is more concerned about his image than the bestiality of his henchmen in Gujarat.

Displaying newer heights of his sickening hypocrisy, he said that what he had heard about the happenings in Gujarat, about the atrocities on women and the loot carried out by elite families caused apprehension for the future of the country and its culture. A new poison and frenzy was being propagated which had to be curbed, he added. His double-speak is unlimited. As the presiding deity of the saffron pantheon which has unleashed a war of extermination against religious minorities, Vajpayee has to take the main responsibility for the spread of this new poison and frenzy. Instead, alongwith his allies who have chosen to run with the hares while hunting with the hounds, he continues to patronise these very forces that are out to destroy the unity and integrity of our country and its rich diversity.

Keeping to the tradition of the saffron brigade that their acts of destruction of India's secular democratic foundations should neither be recorded nor reported to the public, Vajpayee spoke very critically of media's role. Recollect that while the Babri Masjid was being demolished, the saffron brigade systematically beat up every single cameramen, confiscating or destroying any evidence of the manner in which the Masjid was razed to the ground.

Similarly, in Gujarat, the prime minister wants "a code of conduct" for the media, so that the systematic and inhuman genocide is not reported. In fact, he went on to state that picturisation of gory happenings and identification of victims should not be allowed. In other words, the saffron brigade can pillage, rape, destroy, burn and kill, but the country should not be told about it.

This is not acceptable, Mr. Vajpayee. Your government may have won the vote in the Lok Sabha, but it has lost the confidence of people at large. People are only waiting for the earliest opportunity to show you the door and, thus, safeguard India's unity and integrity.