Can
The Real Shekhawat
Ever Stand Up?
By Subhash Gatade
25 June, 2007
Countercurrents.org
( “There will be
a Gujarat-like situation in Rajasthan if the State Government did not
stop its ‘appeasement of Muslims’ and ‘anti-Hindu’
policies.”
- Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, former Rajasthan chief minister,
Gangapur on 23 April, The Hindu, 30 April 2002.)
The
elections for the post of the President of India have rather opened
up a free for all what is known in colloquial Hindi as Khula Khel Farrukhabadi.
The saffron sympathetic journos in the media have rather taken upon
themselves the onerous task of excavating the past of the UPA candidate
for the post Ms Pratibha Patil. Days in and days out we are being bombarded
with stories laced with usual melodrama about alleged acts of omission
and commission on part of the presidential nominee of UPA.
While a latest writeup in
a national daily (24 June 2007, Indian Express) has a few things to
tell about Ms Patil's statement as minister on the floor of the house
of Maharashtra assembly, a press conference organised at the house of
a member of Akali Dal the other day presented details about the allged
role of Ms Patil in the coverup of a murder case. It is a different
matter that official spokesperson of BJP feigned ignorance about their
role in facilitating the conference despite the fact that it was held
at the residence of a NDA constituent and was attended by Mr Sudheendra
Kulkarni, a close confidant of Advani.
There is no denying the fact
that there is a task cut out for the investigating agencies to look
into the veracity of the claims so that truth could be separated from
chaff.
Of course the naivette on
part of Ms Pratibha Patil - which was very much visible in her controversial
remarks about genesis of veil - have also unfolded a situation where
she has continued to remain a focus of attention , altogether for wrong
reasons.
But in this rigmarole for
the post of President, the other contestant for the top post Mr Bhairon
Singh Shekhawat, the present incumbent to the post of Vice-President,
has saved himself from any scrutiny. And despite being in a miserable
position as far as game of numbers was concerned he seems happy smiling
receiving accolades from unknown quarters for his 'secular' credentials.
The other day Maulana Madni, who was with Uttarakhand Congress till
recently and who had to quit his post because of pressures put by the
fanatic elements of the Hindutva brigade even went to meet him and declare
his support for him for being the only fit candidate for the post.
Neither anyone is ready to
reach the kernel of truth and understand for her/himself a die-hard
RSS worker's allged metamorphosis into a 'secular' person nor anyone
seems concerned to undertake this task. It appears that the blurring
of reality which is a bane of the media seems to have caught the anti-communal
formations as well.
Nobody seems to recapitulate
Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's his highly controversial statement warning
the state government to desist from 'appeasement of Muslims' if it wants
to avoid a 'Gujarat type situation' when the genocide in Gujarat was
on. And nobody seems to remember the manner in which he graced the occasion
of the birth anniversary celebrations of Golwalkar, the second Supremo
of RSS, while he was still a Vice President of India. People very well
know that M.S. Golwalkar, was a strong supporter of ethnic cleansing
done by the Nazis which he openly glorified in his book 'We Or Our Nationhood
Defined' (1939), who yearned for a Manusmriti like regime which condemned
Dalits and Women to a secondary status and who opposed the making of
Constitution under the leadership of the legendary Dr Ambedkar and had
strongly contended that Manusmriti be made the new constitution of independent
India. Golwalkar's highlly dubious role at the time of partition wherein
he even instigated violence against the minorities is also a wellknown
fact.
In his message to the special
issue of 'Organiser' on Golwalkar, Shekhawat wrote :
Shri Guruji was a staunch
nationalist and an impassioned patriot who had contributed immensely
in varied spheres of nation building activities with great distinction.
A scholar of eminence, he symbolised the Sanatani ideals. Guruji dedicated
his entire life for the enduring welfare of the country and the people.(
March 26, 2006 Organiser)
Interestingly neither the
secular-democratic formations nor all those people who yearn for giving
a befitting reply to the communal forces have deemed it necessary to
take a look at the five decade old political career of Mr Shekhawat
to see for themselves how his 'moderate' image has helped strengthen
the 'lunatic fringe' of the Sangh Parivar in the polity and society
of the state.It appears that they have also been carried away by the
supposedly impartial handling of the upper house by Mr Shekhawat or
the media-savvy soft spoken image of Mr Shekhawat, who it is known was
successful in engineering cross-voting from the then opposition camp
during elections to the post of Vice-President held in 2002.
On the other hand a concerted
attempt - with due support from the saffron journos - seems to be on
to present him as an 'apostle' of secularism and a man who with his
'impartial handling' of the upper house has become a logical claimant
for the top post of the Indian republic. And these people have rec'd
ready help from some elements in the Muslim community who are batting
for him to settle their personal scores with Congress or who want to
demonstrate their disenchantment with the growing soft hindutva streak
in its politics.
It is clear that three time
chief minister of Rajasthan ( 22 June 1977- 16 Feb 1980, 4 March 1990-
15 Dec 1992 and 4 th Dec 1993- 29 Nov 1998) and leader of opposition
for a considerable portion of the remaining period Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
can be said to the the central figure in the development of BJP-RSS
in the state. If today the state appears to be a bastion of Hindutva
politics where minorities are under growing attack , civil society has
no qualms in practising caste apartheid and the bureaucracy finds itself
highly communalised his role in this transformation needs to be underlined..
One still remebers the November 1997 issue of Communalism Combat wherein
the Combat had exposed the growing violence against women in Rajasthan
under BJP rule. The then BJP chief minister, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
and his deputy chief minister, Hari Shankar Bhabhra, had justified incidents
of rape, acid throwing and molestation. (‘Why talk of humans,
even gods cannot be sure of a woman’s character’—
Bhabhra).
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's continued protection of obscurantist values
is evident from many actions. People's Democracy (22 September 2002)
had underlined :
Along with the ruling political
elite, the administrative machinery too is permeated with a deep-rooted
bias.When Roop Kanwar was burnt alive in 1987, top political leaders
like Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Rajmata Scindia and some state government
officials had visited the site to offer their prayers.
The year 2001 was witness
to the serious attempts on part of the BJP-RSS to replicate the Gujarat
model of Hindu Rashtra in the then Congress ruled Rajasthan. And the
most ominous had been the 'Trishul Diksha Samarohs' organised by the
Bajrang Dal through which such trishuls which were in fact Rampuri knives
were distributed in lakhs. In public meeting the then Chief Minister
Ashok Gehlot had charged that more than 40 lakhs trishuls have been
distributed in different parts of the state. It was for everyone to
see that government agencies, administration as well as the police had
come under severe strain due to the well coordinated actions and campaigns
by RSS, Shiv Sena, VHP and Bajrang Dal which was aided and abetted by
the parliamentary wing of the Hindu extremists — the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP).
Teesta Setalvad had quoted
a leading journalist in her writeup on Communalisation of Rajasthan
( Nov 2001, Communalism Combat) :
“Nine years, in totality,
of BJP rule has been used by the party leadership to successfully infiltrate
echelons of the administration and the police,” Sriprakash Sharma,
senior journalist and editor of Rashtradoot told CC. “Even now,
sections of the top cadre of the IAS and the IPS visit the former BJP
chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and the latter publicly flaunts
this as he did a few weeks ago at Diwali.”.
Looking at the feverish attempts
to construct a new common sense around Mr Shekhawat it is high time
that students of Rajasthan politics go into the details of Mr Shekhawat's
55 year old political career to let the people know how his 'moderate'
image has facilitated the growing dominance of Hindutva fanatic elements
in the Rajasthani society.
In fact one finds a lot of
commonality between the images of Vajpayee and Shekhawat as opposed
to Advani and Modi. While the moderate looking Vajpayee could adorn
the high seats of power for his moderate image with due support from
'secular' sounding formations , Shekhawat also seems to be marching
on the same route.
It is a different matter
that when the need arose a 'moderate' Vajpayee had no qualms in castigating
the religious minorites to suit his purpose. The world very well remembers
how in its Goa meeting Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister of India had
taunted and chided Muslims by saying “wherever they are, they
live separately”, and nonchalantly asserted: “If a conspiracy
had not been hatched to burn alive the innocent passengers of the Sabarmati
Express [at Godhra], the subsequent tragedy in Gujarat could have been
averted. But this did not happen.” He then rhetorically asked:
“But who lit the fire?”
Not to be left behind Shekhawat
had declared “There will be a Gujarat-like situation in Rajasthan
if the State Government did not stop its ‘appeasement of Muslims’
and ‘anti-Hindu’ policies.”
email : [email protected]
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