EDITORIAL

 Another Diabolical Yatra

THE season for BJP’s rath yatras seems to have arrived once again.  This is an ominous development. 

The terrorist attacks in Varanasi have been  universally condemned  by all the major political parties.  Both the houses of the parliament have expressed their grave concern and grief  at the loss of lives. The parliament reiterated its strong resolve never to surrender to such criminal acts and to maintain peace and tranquillity and complete harmony amongst the Indian people. 

Instead of uniting with the rest of the country, in this resolve, the RSS/BJP, as is it’s wont, is seeing in this unfortunate and dastardly attack an opportunity to regain its waning political/electoral support in the country.  Advani has made the most outrageous of charges against the Left parties claiming that the po0licy of appeasing minorities has led to such terrorist attacks.  Specifically, he has cited the anti-Bush protests organised by the Left parties as an expression of appeasing minorities!  This is nothing surprising  for a party that sees the world only through communal blinkers: a world  that is divided between religious majorities and minorities. 

Further, as an ardent supporter and collaborator of US imperialism, the RSS/BJP deliberately glosses over the inhuman crime perpetuated by imperialism the world over. Opposition to US imperialism, disengaged from the world wide reaction to protect human dignity and liberty, is seen by the communal forces as a protest that must have an ulterior electoral motive. Such is their pathetic understanding of the world situation, that they seek to mask their  bootlicking  of US imperialism by ascribing false and fabricated motives to those  who uphold universal values of freedom and liberty. 

Worse still,  the BJP charged the Left’s support to the UPA government  in measures like the  setting up of the U C Banerjee Commission, which concluded  that the Godhra train fire was not a conspiracy  but an accident,  as expressions  of minority appeasement.   Nothing further need be said of their diabolical effort  to suppress the truth  to justify  the State-sponsored communal genocide that followed in Gujarat. 

Advani would, of course,  be loath to accept a similar suggestion that the growing incidents of terrorist attacks under the NDA rule  were due to minority appeasement.  The attack on the parliament, the attacks on the Red Fort, the attacks at the Akshardham temple in Ahmedabad, the various terrorist attacks all across the country evoked universal condemnation by all political parties and the then NDA government received the fullest of cooperation, despite its inefficiency and lack of resolve, to combat such terrorism. Yet, today, instead of doing this, the RSS/BJP rakes up  preposterous charges of minority appeasement only to  sharpen communal polarisation.  Their objective is not to combat terrorism. Their objective is to  utilise terrorist attacks to sharpen communal polarisation for electoral benefit.  In the process, they seek to destroy the very unity  and integrity of our country and its social harmony. 

Through these columns,  we had repeatedly drawn the attention of our readers to the fact that the RSS/BJP, following  their defeat in the 2004 general elections, after agonising  absence of any meaningful explanation  for the defeat, have fallen back  on  their core communal agenda as the only basis for their political survival. The change in the BJP’s leadership guard  was also part of this effort.  These attacks  appear to them to be a `God sent’ opportunity to embark on a nefarious course of  sharpening communal conflicts and tensions in the country. Advani’s  earlier infamous rath yatra  left behind a trail of bloodshed and mayhem, till then (i.e., till the Gujarat carnage) hitherto unknown since the days of partition.  The political gains they made, as a consequence,  have whetted  their appetite  to once again  replicate  the same.

No Indian patriot  can afford to allow this to happen.  While the UPA government must take all necessary measures to combat terrorism and its consequences, the blatant attempt  to utilise terrorism to advance the RSS/BJP’s political fortunes at the expense of the country and its people cannot be  allowed.  The Indian people must rise to thwart and defeat  such a diabolical gameplan.