Advani's
(W)rath Yatra For
National (Dis)integration
By V.B.Rawat
11 March, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Lal Krishna Advani is back to
what he has been an 'expert' for the past 15 years. After the bomb blasts
at the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi, he hurriedly organized a press
meet and informed the hungry journalists that he along with Rajnath
Singh would embark on 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' (India integration Yatra)
against the policies of the United Progressive Alliance government which
have resulted in the blast at Varanasi. Advani says that the blasts
were the outcome of 'minorityism' being shamelessly played by the UPA
government.
While people of Uttar-Pradesh
in general and Varanasi in particular should be complimented for a strong
response to the antinational forces who tried to dismantle the communal
harmony in the temple town, the Hindutva party was unable to understand
the need of the people. Its TV face Prakash Javadekar informed that
in democracy every one has a right to express their feelings. Problem
with Javadekar is that they would not like this right to be given to
Muslims.
However, it would be unfair
to Advani if the issue of communalization has not been addressed properly.
After the demolition of Babari Masjid, things were coming back to normalcy
when the issue of Cartoon dominated the debates in India. There are
few questions related to this. These questions are bigger than the religion
and need introspection from all of us.
Violent Reactions
to Dissent
Our feelings are being 'hurt'
every now and then. When the Cartoon Controversy was in full swing,
another TV channel was showing how 'Hindu' Gods and goddesses were being
denigrated in Europe. Last year Christians also protested against film
'sin' which shows illegitimate relationship between a pastor and young
girl who visit the church too often. The Sikhs blasted one play right
in London for her blasphemy of their religion. Hence it is not just
Muslims who are sensitive to 'criticism' but we all who have closed
our windows and want to believe what we believe and feel right. The
biggest casualty in this is truth.
Recently several Dalit right
activists have been put behind bar when some of them garlanded the idol
of Lord Rama with shoes. They burnt the Manu Smriti and Vedas for their
alleged contempt towards the Dalits. The Shiv Sena 's goons attacked
Zee TVs' office for allegedly offensive play against its Supreme high
command Bala Saheb Thackerey. In Uttar-Pradesh the sensibilities of
Bahujan Samaj Party were hurt when CNN-IBN report exposed the 'financial'
deals of its Goddess Mayawati. Ambedkarites are unhappy with alleged
publication of his letters with a British woman who helped him. The
Gandhian's do not feel comfortable with ' Mee Naturam Godse Boltai'.
This culture of deification
of leaders in the name of identity is a dangerous phenomenon in our
part of the world. Whatever we may claim as 'secular' values for our
democracy, 'secularism' and 'democracy' are not part of our social system.
We live in a sham political democracy, which begin with politicians
and end up with them. They use identity as a tool to strengthen their
political bargain and purchase unquestioning loyalty from their 'caste'
and 'religious' fellows. In other words, it is 'crony' and 'feudal'
democracy as there is no space for the marginalized and 'minorities'
in such a democracy. The erstwhile Rajas and Mahrajas, religious gurus,
big land mafias, criminals, accused, all, have found best shelter in
democracy. Any effort to question them meet with threat of dire consequences.
We pretend that the elections
are being contested in the name of development. The fact is a big no.
It is the identity politics that dominate our elections. Identities
thrive not on success but on the fear. The only success that identities
can do is to mobilize people and collect fund from them. The fear of
the opposite identity subjugating the other one is exploited very well.
An atmosphere of fear is therefore necessary to flourish the identity
politics. Once you instill fear by creating an artificial enemy for
your community, none of the community poor are going to ask any further
question. In fact, he or she would handsomely contribute for strengthening
his community work. Ironically, there are no such initiatives for education,
hospitals, social work where people can contribute at their own. They
still wait for a messiah to come and provide support to them. But in
the name of identity, people are ready to 'strengthen' their leaders
by 'contributing' handsomely. The collection by the religious organization
is matter of research for every one of us. What could be better than
using caste and religion to spread their hateful ideology?
Living for Religion
After all, we are told, life is for religion, for our holy books, holy
gods and goddess and not vice versa. All of them are unquestionable.
The only question we ask is about other faith. Hindus have pernicious
caste system say both Muslims and Christians. How can they tackle so
many gods and goddesses? The upper caste middle class Hindus would often
pretend to be more 'modern' by suggesting Muslim women are worst hit.
'Muslims are fanatic', they would often say. Muslim says George Bush
and Christian world are killing the Muslims. They must apologize for
attack on Iraq. True, Japan must apologize from Korea, Britain from
India, Muslims from Hindus for they ruled over 400 years in India. The
Upper caste Hindus should apologize from the Dalits. Men should ask
mercy from women and so on. Communist should apologize from freethinkers
in China, Soviet Union, Cuba and Venezuela. List is long and the only
thing is to change ourself. Bring ourself out of these identities, which
makes us doubtful about any one who is not conformity with us.
It is also important to understand
that minority identity is easily targeted as 'communal' while majority
identity become 'national'. Therefore, we can catch an Abu Salem and
put an Interpol warrant against Dawood Ibrahim while our police can
do nothing against Bal Thackrey and Lal Krishna Advani. Is not it shameful
that the man headed the Ministry who had charge sheeted him on the Ayodhya
demolition case. Remember, this man preaches us morality in public life.
His 'devotees', mainly the journalists and Internet breed of Non Reliable
Indians (NRIs) are ready to catch his words.
Tragically, it is not just
Muslims who thrive on the international identity first and national
identity later as Vir Sanghvi might make us feel. The Christians do
the same. Their mission work irrespective of countries is basically
to serve their religion first and national identity later, otherwise,
why would mother Teresa come to India and serve the 'poor'.
But are Hindus so naïve
not to do this identity business. Why should India open its border with
Nepal and not with other countries? Why do we not bother that a porous
border with Nepal could be equally dangerous such as with Bangladesh?
But Nepal is not on the radar of Hindutva because its feudal Maharaja
is serving the cause of Hindutva better than others hence none of Hindutva
gangs would talk about feudlocracy rampant in Nepal.
It is not for nothing that
Mr Advani during his tenure as home minister asked for dual citizenship.
One need not to wonder why the Sangh Parivar and its hate mongering
offshoots have the largest supporter groups in United States and United
Kingdom. One wonders why they could not learn a lesson or two about
diversity and democracy living in free societies.
Identity of 'enemy'
Hence when the Muslim protests
in India against George Bush and the so-called Marxists joins it, it
makes a lot of soul searching for us. It is easier for our leftist friend
to condemn United States and United Kingdom who are much better and
independent societies than us. But like Advani, they also need an enemy.
Nobody, justify Bush and Blair for their deeds. Their people are against
them and they will bite dust next time but how can we get rid of those
'nationalists' who are sitting overhead. The Muslim do not protest against
the killing by their co-brotherns in Kashmir or when Saddam gassed the
Kurds. The Hindus do not protest when the Dalits are hacked to death
in the villages. The Christian right wing is happy with George Bush
for his 'family' philosophy.
We all need an enemy in the
identity business. Mulayam need a Yaqub Quraishi to incite Muslims for
alleged blasphemous act of a cartoonist who 'painted' a picture of prophet.
Interestingly nobody know how he looked like hence any drawing in the
name of prophet are nothing but idiotic. In fact any drawing in the
name of any Gods and Goddess are just by the artificial imagination
of our mind. But we easily get hurt. Yaqub Quraishi was ready to give
Rs 51 crore to kill the cartoonist. I would suggest him to start a 'Sarva
Siksha Abhiyan' for Muslim girls with this money. That would serve him
votes and name also. Once Yaqub suggested the killing, the Hindu leaders
were ready to offer Rs 101 crore on the head of painter M F Hussein
for allegedly insulting Hindu Goddesses.
It is ironical that our democratic
values are guided by religious values and not by the human rights values,
international code of justices and various reform movements, which challenged
the religious hegemony. Any challenge to religion and its demagogues
are met with strong protests.
It is not that the 'devotees'
are against what is happening or what is being written against our Gods.
People and institutions are targeted even if we keep quiet or we do
not write or celebrate the birthday of certain particular leader or
we do not moan the death anniversary of some. Sambhaji Brigade in Maharastra
attacked the office of Marathi Daily, Lok Satta as the daily has not
brought any special supplement on the day of Shivaji Jayanti.
When movement for Uttarakhand
was gaining ground in the hills in 1994, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the then
chief minister asked his supporters to burn the copies of two Hindi
dailies named Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagaran. He alleged that these newspapers
were inciting the people. The 'devotees' of Mulayam then followed the
instructions and hit the vehicle carrying these newspapers.
Advani's Yatra therefore
would not bring any change in the otherwise disgruntled Hindutva. The
people of this country know it well that one 'enemy' created by either
Muslims or Hindutva would not work in longer run. The democracy has
taught the Muslim masses to ask more questions from their leaders. One
must not forget that the benefit of Muslim identity politics in India
has been usurped by the upper caste Hindus both the way. On the one
hand it has helped consolidate the RSS, Hindutva and other such organization,
the great beneficiaries the other side were Mulayam Singh Yadav or Mayawati.
It is not surprising that Gandhi used the same Muslim identity card
to debunk Jinnah's claim to lead Muslim masses in India. Gandhi needed
Mullahs to lead Muslims while Jinnah wanted a secular nationalist approach.
Today, the same practice is being followed by Advani for Hindus and
Mulayam for Muslims in the name of secularism.
Hunger-Poverty biggest
Enemy
But then much water has flown in Sarayu and Ganga after the Babari Masjid
and Shahbano case. Uttar-Pradesh is in the grip of micro identities
and Advani is trying to kill those micro identities by projecting one
big Hindu identity. One need to understand is that Advani in his Hindu
identity is a Sindhi who do not have any vote bank. His other friends
are upper caste Banias and a few Thakurs. BJP's Hindutva thesis revolve
around these 'minority' castes added with a few of those 'minorities'
who migrated from Pakistan . BJP in the grand Hindu scheme of things
represent a tiny of minority upper castes and even those upper castes
have now started drifting away from it.
In final analysis communalism
is an offshoot of identity politics. Those who gain from caste politics
opt for caste identities and those who have everything to lose from
caste identities opt for a bigger 'nationalist' identity. There is no
individual identity in this country. Religious and caste identities
are the biggest challenge to democracy and human rights. India today
needs a secular space for its politics and national life. This secular
space mean that the state has to keep away from the religiosity and
that any dissent on religion should be taken in a democratic spirit.
It is too much to die for 400 years old mosque or so-called birthplace
of a Lord which has no historic value. Thousands of people have already
died in the name of pigs and cows. We need an India that takes care
of its have nots, the Dalits and tribals. We need Indian who can feel
the pain and agony of its women who suffers in the hate campaign and
communal violence. We need Indians who feel ashamed of continuous hunger
deaths. Yes, India need community of youngsters who are ready to come
'Swadesh' to fight against hunger, poverty and illiteracy.
Fight against violence, terror
and hate go hand in hand. You cannot fight terrorism with a sectarian
mindset. Off late, these 'protests' and 'Yatras' have become political
tool for revival of 'dead' horses. We have seen such protests and marches
against 'enemy'. Unlike the left, the 'enemy' for Advani lives around
us. He hates them because their single-minded obsession failed his mission
PM. It is time for all of us to heed the prophetic words of Dr Ambedkar
when he said ' Hindu Rastra would be the biggest calamity for India.'
I can say with conviction that not just Hindu Rastra but any kind of
theocratic state would be dangerous for the health of our national life.
Let free spirit prevail in India. Narrow parochial Hindtuvavadis cannot
fight against the feudal Islamic Jehadis. We need proud secular Indian
who can stand against the fanatics who want to keep people subjugated
in the name of communal and caste identities. Let us throw these hate
mongering identities into the dustbins of history.