Rambhakti Unveiled
By Ram Puniyani
31 October, 2003
Nation
breathed the sigh of relief as the proposed Ramdarshan and Ram Sankalp
Sabha of VHP-Sangh Parivar ended in a whimper (17th October). The menacing
postures of the leadership of VHP sent a shiver down the spine of peace
loving countrymen. We witnessed with horror the VHP 'hero' Dr. Praveen
bhai Togadia threatening the communal violence in case kar sevaks,
nay Ram sevaks and Ram Bhaktas, are stopped on their way to the 'devotional'
journey. We witnessed with horror that despite the threat of communal
violence Dr. Togadia was not put behind the bars, which is
routinely done to any one threatening social peace. But of course all
the criminals are not equal as regularly demonstrated by the progenitor
of Ram temple movement, the current home minister, the Sangh proclaimed
reincarnation of Sardar Patel, Mr. Lal Krishna Advani.
The whole episode
was very revealing. Various aspects of the current dynamics came to
surface. How are the timings of such darshans, sankalps calculated?
In one of the talk shows when a top VHP functionary (B.P.Singhal) was
questioned as to how such overt manifestations of Rambhakti take place
just before proposed elections, he aggressively retorted that if 'we'
benefit on electoral ground from a particular tactic why we should not
use it. So the last curtain in the Rambhakti is being unveiled from
the proponents of temple itself. Temple agitation is not a religious
movement, it is a political movement. The basics have been made clear
for us by the horses themselves and for this we do not need the interpretations
of 'pseudo secularists' any longer. So as and when elections are announced
one can visualize the meter of Rambhakti breaking the upper barriers
and surge of this
'devotional' issue reaching its acme.
As a run up to the
event, the VHP demanded that no restrictions should be put on the Ram
Bhktas, to Ayodhya, the war zone of electoral battle. Not many will
recall that Ayoddhya as such means a zone free from wars. But since
92-93 Ayodhya has been converted into a place where initially the mosque
was razed to ground and the Muslims families were butchered and the
biggest insult was hurled on the principles of Lord Ram whose regime
is supposed to be having an atmosphere in which, the subjects were free
from physical and mental agony. Currently as UP is being ruled by Mulayam
Singh Yadav, who earlier has handled this type of agitation and restricted
its dangerous portents, there was already a fear in the minds of Sangh
leadership that he may repeat same performance. So quick came the advice
from the PM and DPM that VHP should be trusted for its peaceful agitation.
This was
the same time that Dr. Togadia was wielding his trishuls and showing
its sharpest piercing edges to the fearful minorities and Nation as
a whole. Mr.
Advani and Mr. Vajapayee both ran to the rescue of their co-parivar
members by advising Mulayam that VHP is trustworthy, essentially in
the Orwellian sense. The terms are being given new meanings, notwithstanding
the memories of Babri demolition when similar promises were made in
front of National integration council by the then BJP Govt. of UP. VHP
and its affiliates have blood on their hand and right from Babri demolition
to Pastor Stains burning to Gujarat riots the role of VHP hate campaign
and the
association of its members in organizing these events is obvious to
all. It is more obvious to Advani-Vajpayee duo and that's perhaps why
they
currently are providing all sorts of umbrellas to their associates.
At every stage of
the agitation the turn out was much below the expected number and some
times one feels that the Ram Temple issue is following the law of diminishing
returns. Even VHP-RSS is not sure so they have to keep trying and assessing
the political worth of such issues. It's probably for this that such
agitations are being supplemented by Gujarat type of anti-Minority pogroms
to keep the electoral appeal at the winning level. Any way, mercifully
Mulayam's strategy paid and the event, which had the potential of creating
a serious disturbance, ended as a damp squib. The Bharat bandh call
given by Mr. Singhal is an index of the frustration at the failure of
this campaign.
In the whole melee
raised by VHP, one important point got missed out. What do the people
of Ayodhya think of the whole issue? In a different forum in which the
Mahants of Ayodhya, like Mahant Bhavnath and Madhavacharya who met as
a group, Ayodhya ki Awaz, appealed that they want peace and harmony
in Ayodhya and are opposed to Ram temple agitation. They also
called the bluff of Mr. Ashok Singhal that the Ram Darshan has been
planned in consultation with Mahants. They pointed out that no decision
could be reached at the meeting and later Mr. Singhal announced, on
his own that the Sants have taken such a decision. In a sense the VHP
is an imposition on the Hindu society, not its representative body in
any sense of the word.
It has been milking
the electoral cow of Ayodhya for its parent organization RSS and its
electoral brotherthe BJP. At surface they keep threatening each other
but it is a make believe boxing as all the wings of Sangh Parivar are
following the complimentary aspects of the politics which they think
will lead to the formation of Hindu Rashtra. It is more than clear that
apart from the Muslims, the average person of Ayodhya is the biggest
victim in the divisive politics being played by VHP. The life at Ayodhya
has changed for worse since the Sangh Parivar has discovered that its
chariot, rath, for power can go through the temple in Ayodhya.
Today Hindus of
Ayodhya and nearby places are as much a victim of the Hindu Rashtra
politics as the minorities are. Every time the VHP launches agitation,
the life in Ayodhya gets disrupted and the businesscomes down. The local
sants have special reason to be annoyed as they have been used to seeing
the amity of Muslims and Hindus, and this is always a casualty in the
programs undertaken by the Hindutva politics.
So where does the
solution to the Ayodhya dispute lie? Shankracharya of Kanchi Kampitham
has reiterated his appeal that Muslims should hand over the Babri site
to VHP. Will that solve the problem? If we go to the roots it is clear
that Ayodhya is not a religious or devotional issue. One remembers poet
saint Tulsidas who when banished from the Ram Temple for the sin of
writing Ramayan in Lokbhasha (avadhi), violating the law of Brahmins
that they should only be using Devbhasha, Sanskrit, went on to write
in his autobiography, Vinay Chritavali, that he lives in a mosque.
The real devotion
and spitrituality does not require a physical structure. This is a constructed
political issue, which has been raising the emotional tempest and mobilizing
the gullible sections of society, who are used as a cannon fodder for
BJP-VHP politics. The suggestion that Muslim bodies should surrender
the place to buy peace, while noble (and one sided) in its intention
is not likely to solve the problem as VHP in reality is not for temple.
Its prime aim is to keep using the issues, which can arouse the emotions
of section of Hindus to make them feel that VHP-BJP stands for the interests
of Hindus. Even if the offer of Ram temple site is made to VHP, within
a day they will jump to Kashi and Mathura and than a long list of 2000
odd temples are waiting in the queue. The issues like Bhoj Shala, Baba
Budan Giria, as odd church in Keral are mere symptoms of the political
psychology, which wants to keep digging the harmonious roots of the
society to keep baking the bread of its political ambitions.
One is not sure
how long they can use the temple issue to mobilize the people as the
failure of expected response to the present campaign clearly demonstrates.
In that case the threats of Togadias to start the riots is the other
armamentarium in the hands of champions of Saffron agenda. The solution,
though complex has to be sought at the political level. The retrograde
political gambits of Sangh parivar have to be defeated at political
and social level. The social consciousness, which has been doctored
against the minorities, against secularism, against composite nationalism
and plural ethos has to be fought against. The political canvass has
to be brought back to the real problems of the society, those of bread
butter and shelter, to make sure that the emotion based campaigns, hate
based ideology and politics with
anti-democratic agenda of Sangh Parivar is defeated in a comprehensive
way. How can secular forces stand up to defeat this politics is a million
lives question!