A disturbing escalation

WITH THE VISHWA Hindu Parishad-sponsored `dharam sansad' (assembly of sadhus) at the Maha Kumbh setting a deadline - March 12, 2002 - for the removal of ``all obstacles'' to the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, the National Democratic Alliance Government at the Centre and the BJP regime in Uttar Pradesh have been put on notice. The fact that the `sansad' has refrained from fixing a firm and proximate date for putting up the contentious temple, as the VHP had been threatening it would do, should have come as a big relief, in the immediate context, to the BJP leadership and to the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, personally since `managing' the coalition partners with pretensions to secularism must be that much easier now. The perceived `climbdown' suggests that the hardliners in the Sangh Parivar were presumably made to realise the logic of political expediency that lay in keeping the temple issue on the centre stage without enforcing a showdown for the present. The objective evidently is to draw maximum electoral mileage in the coming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh by drumming up communal passions on the emotive issue, even while taking care that the applecart (the Vajpayee Government) is not upset on that account at least for now.

Highly disturbing and ominous, from the standpoint of cherished national values and traditions and religious harmony, is the `action plan' the `sansad' and the VHP have unfolded for the runup to D-Day. The three-phased plan - comprising collective chanting of `Ram' in villages and offering of `jalabhishek' to deities in temples across the country, with an Ayodhya-to-Delhi march of sadhus providing the finale in February 2002 - is typical of the Sangh Parivar's mobilisation strategy and is of a piece with the programmes the saffron forces had organised in the pre-Babri Masjid demolition phase. Although no threat of a forcible occupation of the disputed site (in the event of the Government failing to oblige) has been openly held out, there is no mistaking the intention of the VHP and such others spearheading the `Ramjanmabhoomi' movement. Which is to build the temple on the very site where the Babri Masjid had stood before it was pulled down on December 6, 1992, and get the authorities to clear all the `obstacles' that might stand in the way of their accomplishing the task. Their idea is, plainly, to give the ruling establishment an ultimatum and then use the lead time to pressure - possibly intimidate and coerce - the Government into acquiescence by whipping up communal frenzy. And this is an open challenge not just to the Government of the day, which is duty bound to abide by and honour whatever verdict is handed down by the judiciary (in the pending cases), but to the very concept of rule of law.

To the provocative posturing of the Ram temple protagonists, the response of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board has been predicable - that the Masjid site is ``non-negotiable''. In fact, the Muslim community has a very valid and legitimate claim for reparation in respect of the wrong done to it when the mosque was demolished. With the VHP and those of its ilk proclaiming their determination to push their temple agenda aggressively and to the finish, on the one side, and the minority community finding itself driven to the wall, on the other, one dreads to visualise the evolving scenario. It would not do for the Prime Minister and his colleagues to offer bland assurances that the ``law would take its course'' and that the Government would not remain ``spectators'', should anyone attempt to disturb the status quo in Ayodhya. In a matter such as this, involving as it does highly sensitive religious sentiments, any intervention has to be in the initial stages. And the time is now for the Vajpayee Government to act firmly by way of restraining the likes of the VHP, to start with, from going ahead with their communally explosive programmes.

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Section  : Opinion
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