Hindutva poses the real threat to India

WHAT CONSTITUES THE REAL THREAT TO INDIA ?
by Subhash Gatade

Hyderabad : BJP leader L.K.Advani has said that after naxalism and terrorism, infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals from across the border was the third biggest threat to country's security.
(The Hindu, April 19, 2006)

‘(they) were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle.’
Tacitus (Roman historian and official, c.58 to 115 C.E.)
The Annals, Book XV, C.E. 62-65

Lal Krishna Advani, ex President of BJP would not have imagined in his wildest dreams that Sangh Parivar's own people, would get caught in making illegal bombs just when he with his entourage was busy sermonising all and sundry about threats before the nation. And the coincidence was striking. According to a writeup in Mid Day ( 9 th April 2006) "..[o]n the eve of Lal Krishna Advani’s Bharat Suraksha Yatra in Maharashtra, police officials in Nanded said Bajrang Dal activists were actually making a bomb before a bomb exploded in an activist’s house." It is worth noting that in this bomb blast two people died on the spot and three others got badly injured. The investigating officer was categorical enough to tell that the duo Naresh and Himanshu, which died on the spot were 'office bearers of Bajrang Dal from time to time and used to attend their meetings,'.
Looking at the fact that none of the Sangh Parivar organisations maintain any membership list, as expected the state Bajrang Dal leader denied that the duo which got killed or the three injured ones had anything to do with his organisation which ascribed the powerful explosion to 'crackers'. The most interesting comment came from the state BJP spokesperson "In any case, what does the Bajrang Dal’s involvement in this, if at all, have to do with us? We are an independent political party with an independent political agenda.”(The Telegraph, 10 April 2006)
One does not know what was Advani's reaction to the Nanded episode. Definitely a man who has been nearly abandoned by the Sangh Patriarchs' for his Jinnah heresy and who is busy finding ways and means to make himself more acceptable to them once again must not have chided the Nanded group. Possibly he had vouched for their innocence. Commenting on the 'bomb explosion' he must have said that it needs to be seen as part of a larger conspiracy at the behest of some foreign hand.
One still remembers how he had similarly delivered a 'certificate of good conduct' to Bajrangis in Orissa after the Graham Steins case. 'I know them. They would not engage in this type of work' was his crisp reply about Bajrang Dal then. Interestingly he alongwith George Fernandes had rushed to Orissa to give a 'clean chit' to them when there were allegations about their involvement in the barbaric incident where the Australian missionary who was engaged in serving lepers was burnt alive with his two kids.
It is a different matter that for these 'Soldiers of Hanuman' as they like to call themselves the certificates of good conduct were useless for all practical purposes. Rather they were part of a mob carrying tridents and lathis which had attacked Orissa assembly four years ago. As reported in many newspapers, around 500 activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and the Durga Vahini had stormed the Orissa Assembly building and indulged in massive vandalism causing extensive damage. These activists, were on a dharna outside the Assembly to demand the handing over of the disputed land in Ayodhya to the Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas for the construction of a Ram temple. And they forcibly entered the premises through the main entrance at 2.10 p.m. in the presence of a posse of policemen. .... The activists, many of whom were armed with tridents and lathis, broke glass doors, windowpanes of the Assembly library and rooms allotted to the Ministers and smashed the flowerpots in the corridors of the building. (The Hindu, Mar 17, 2002) People may be reminded that this attack had come just a few months after the infamous attack on Indian parliament, which had been rightly condemned and dealt as a 'terrorist act'. But as far as this attack on Orissa Assembly was concerned, it did not attract any 'terrorist' tag and ironically Naveen Patnaik categorised it as an 'unpleasant act'. And for all practical purposes there ended the matter.
Ofcourse it remains to be seen whether the act by the Nanded trio would be brought under the ambit of a law, which considers their act as a 'terrorist' one. We very well know that the draconian law POTA (which was allowed to lapse) which was enacted under Advani-Vajpayi's reign had made it explicit that such acts could be bracketed as ' terrorist act'. It said : "CHAPTER II, 3. (1): Whoever,- (a) with intent to...strike terror in the people or any section of the people does any act or thing by using...inflammable substances or firearms or other lethal weapons...or by any other means whatsoever, in such a manner as to cause, or likely to cause, death of, or injuries to any person or persons or loss of, or damage to, or destruction of, property...Commits a terrorist act.'
As everyone is aware it is not for the first time that Bajrang Dal and its youth were found to be engaged in acts which go against the established civilian mores of our society. It was only two years back, Bajrang Dal with its parent organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was keen on demolishing Afzal Khan memorial at Pratapgarh Fort in Satara district, Maharashtra. ”We had given an ultimatum to the state Government that if it did not demolish the objectionable construction then the job would be done by VHP and Bajrang Dal activists”, VHP International general secretary Praveen Togadia had then told reporters at Pune. (PTI, September 5, 2004) It is a different matter that the whole experiment to repeat 'Babri' at Afzal's Tomb proved to be a damp squib.
Perhaps one is also aware of the news which appeared in most of the newspapers more than two and half years ago which talked of the way "Bajrang Dal activists made a village in Rajasthan Muslim free'. The Indian Express (29 September, 2003) report had given a vivid description of the whole episode : ‘AKLERA (RAJASTHAN): It couldn’t be less subtle. A bright saffron board welcomes you to the ‘‘Ideal Hindu Village’’, Mishroli. Nestled in picturesque green surroundings, the village has acquired this tag just this month. The past 10 days have seen armed Bajrang Dal activists on the rampage, driving out about 25 Muslim families from their homes, ransacking their houses and setting them on fire. '
It has been more than five years that organisations like Bajrang Dal and others of the same ilk have been engaged in training of their cadres in the use of arms. One gets to read stories from different parts of India telling the manner in which Bajrang Dal or different wings of the Hindu right wing go publicly about it. As the annual summary brought out by 'Communalism Combat' ( 2001-2002) puts it : Over the past three years, different wings of the Hindu right wing have proclaimed publicly that they are training their cadres in the use of arms. While at one level the statements proclaim that the training is in the use of air guns only, the threat of violence, and the rhetoric that accompanies these pronouncements portend ill for internal peace in India. Since August 01 even the pretence of using ‘harmless airguns’ has been given the go-by. '
Apart from this public training in arms one is also witness to another sinister way in which militarisation of the civil society is taking place at the behest of the affilated organisations of the Parivar. The Bajrang Dal has through it’s distribution of trishul programmes, actually been systematically arming young men with sharp edged weapons. As a report brought out by People's Union for Civil Liberties', April 2003 rightly put it "And there was a definite correlation between Trishul distribution ceremony in an area and violent communal conflict therein. " As the report makes it clear although the distribution of Trishul is called a symbolic religious exercise supposedly to awaken the Hindus ", ..[d]istributed Trishuls were not at all the iconic harmless Trishuls, which are not sharp at all, associated traditionally with Shiva temples and Shaivite orders. The VHP Trishuls were in fact sharp three bladed daggers meant to cause grave injury and even kill. These Trishul distribution ceremonies were invariably accompanied by VHP leaders, led by Pravin Togadia, delivering inflammatory hate speeches against religious minorities, which immediately exacerbated communal temperature in the area concerned. "
As far as the Indian Constitution goes, private militias arming themselves represent a threat to law and order and the peace and tranquility that the State is bound to preserve. The Indian Arms Act, 1959 also expressly prohibits the possession of arms by private parties without license.But despite all these rulings there is no stopping this forcible militarisation of Indian society.
Definitely one can just go on enumerating the instances which go to show the way attempts are on to communalise rather militarise the social fabric and how Bajrang Dal alongwith other affilated organisations of the Parivar have become a key players in the unfolding drama.
Question naturally arises what purpose gets served by these 'violent acts.’ There is no doubt that the acts of violence reinforce the cleverly constructed idea of restrictive and discriminatory nationhood which is a hallmark of the RSS. This nationhood posits (upper caste) Hindu as the true legatee of the Indian nation and Indian culture is equated with particular religion.
One can imagine the ramifications of giving primacy to a particular religion or a particular people in a multireligious, multicultural nation, multilingual nation at the wee hours of 21 st century. One can imagine the havoc this can create where such blatant 'majoritarianism' is peddled as 'democracy' in a composite culture like ours. For L.K.Advani Naxalism, terrorism or infiltration of migrants from across the borders is the biggest threat to India's security. But any impartial, objective student of Indian society and state would agree that idea of Hindutva and its paraphrenilia of numerous organisations posit the biggest threat to cause of justice and peace in the Indian subcontinent.