GUJARAT

All Is Not Well For BJP In Its ‘Model State’

  Baburam Likhure

AGITATING farmers, bruised psyche of the riot-bashed minorities, discredited police force and a demoralised bureaucracy serve as the backdrop for the electoral battle in Gujarat which had become the laboratory of the right-wing Hindutva forces for nearly a decade now.

Though, apparently, a semblance of peace is reported to have returned in the state after the December 2002 assembly elections, it is actually far from tranquil as communal tensions crop up at the drop of a hat even two years after the saffron forces had unleashed a reign of terror on the minorities with a view to polarise its Hindutva vote bank.

When the BJP was voted to power in the state for the first time in 1995, it was secular India’s first all-male, single community ministry as there was neither a woman nor a minority community member in the council of ministers. But in the subsequent years of the state’s tryst with the BJP, it has broken all records of manipulative politics, including the much-talked about administration’s connivance in the anti-minority genocide witnessed since the unfortunate burning of the Sabarmati Express coach at Godhra on February 27, 2002.

Though the BJP leadership’s immediate reaction that the train torching was part of a foreign conspiracy did not find a place in the chargesheets prepared by the investigating agencies, the state police turned a blind eye to all indications that the backlash which left nearly 2,000 people dead over next three months was a meticulously planned one.

If the prior planning included survey and listing of minority households and business establishments and stocking of inflammable chemicals, the post-mayhem programme was directed towards letting off the Sangh Parivar rioters who could face the risk of being identified by the eyewitnesses among survivors.

Firstly, the police refused to protect the minorities saying they were under orders to give a free hand to the rioters for 72 hours and then they refused to lodge FIRs after it was all over. When media outcry forced them to at least register the offences, the police insisted that the names of the VHP/BJP leaders be dropped from the FIRs. While threats and pressure tactics are still on to withdraw these names as a precondition for minorities’ return to homes, the judicial process itself was being subverted by appointing Sangh Parivar activists as prosecution lawyers for cases in which VHP/BJP people are accused, thus making acquittals a foregone conclusion.

Such being the backdrop of complete communalisation of the system in which the perpetrators, the police and prosecution worked in tandem, it is no wonder that the state’s minorities would still be living in an atmosphere of constant fear.

Though the rehabilitation process of the minorities uprooted from their homes was completed, the economic resettlement is an uphill task for the community even two years after history’s worst riots. Being poorly educated, a large chunk of the community has to depend on poorly paid lowly and menial jobs like automobile garages, tailoring, carpentry, painting and the like. The communal divide prevailing in main cities still deter them from venturing into fashionable majority-dominated areas where the chances of business are higher.

But, then, the rehabilitation sites too are far away from the city’s main business areas forcing the minorities to spend more time and money in commuting for work. The small vendors find it extremely difficult to trade their wares in areas with higher purchasing power as these are invariably the Hindu-dominated places where anti-minority sentiments are still being fuelled by the Sangh Parivar which functions almost like a para-military force in Gujarat.

It is not only the minorities who are still suffering from the after-effects of the riots as small traders too have lost a lot of clientele. The ‘feel good’ factor being touted by the ruling BJP may be relevant for the urban upper middle class, but the farmers in this relatively affluent state are not amused. Nearly six-month-long agitation by the farmers over the issue of power tariff hike is still simmering and it might snowball into a major embarrassment for the Modi ministry during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The very fact that the farmers agitation against power tariff hike is spearheaded by the Sangh Parivar’s own Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) is a clear indicator that all is not well for the BJP’s model state where it rules with an absolute majority in the state assembly.

There is clearly a vacuum in the Gujarat scenario, though an anti-BJP sentiment is visible yet the question remains to what extent would there be one-to-one contests. There are rumblings of resentment among both the Congress and the BJP even as many in the opposition want the Congress to say no to soft Hindutva and ensure a straight fight with the BJP.