There was once a ‘Hindu Jodo’ Yatra disguised as a ‘Ram Rath Yatra’, led by L K Advani in September-October 1990. Its sole purpose was to mobilise the Hindu vote, which the BJP believed was fragmented by the implementation of the Mandal Commission report by former Prime Minister V P Singh, setting aside a 27% quota for OBCs in August 1990. That yatra started in Somnath, Gujarat, and wound through Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Bihar and UP. The imagery of that yatra was, as historian Ramachandra Guha described it, “religious, allusive, militant, masculine and anti-Muslim”. “Garv se kaho hum Hindu hain” was one of the slogans that came up during the yatra. A Toyota van was modified to look like a mythical chariot and became the vehicle for spreading the poison of religion-based majoritarianism. The Indian State and society have never been the same since.
As expected, there was plenty of violence and communal riots along the route. Riots targeting Muslims occurred in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Hyderabad and several other places. Historian K N Panikkar noted that 166 communal riots occurred between September 1 and November 20 that year, in which 564 people were killed. The largest number of riots occurred in UP, where 224 people were killed.
The Ayodhya agitation became the core issue for the BJP in the 1991 parliamentary elections and helped the party to emerge as the second largest party in Lok Sabha as well as capture the crucial UP Assembly to form its first government there. The BJP had tasted blood, so to speak, and it wanted more. Another round of the ‘Ramjanmabhoomi’ agitation was launched, demanding restoration of land considered to be the birthplace of Ram under the Babri Masjid. On December 6, 1992, Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati addressed a crowd of 150,000 ‘karsevaks’ in Ayodhya. That afternoon, the ‘karsevaks’ demolished Babri Masjid, as their leaders openly exhorted them to ‘ek dhakka aur do.’ In the ensuing violence across major cities in the country, Hindu–Muslim clashes took place resulting in the death of over 2,000 people, the majority of them being Muslims. With much blood on its hands, the BJP came to power for 13 days in 1996, 13 months in 1998, and finally, for a full term in 1999.
By the time of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party had found a new ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat’ – the man under whose watch in Gujarat, the Godhra train burning killing 54 ‘karsevaks’ and the massive retaliatory Gujarat riots – or anti-Muslim pogrom, as it has come to be described since -- occurred in 2002. The ‘Hindu Jodo’ project of Advani transformed over the years into a full-fledged ‘us vs them’ communal war, ably stoked by Pakistan-based Islamist terrorism, and had found its muscular icon – the “56-inch chest” strongman who would take on all enemies, real and imaginary, to protect the ‘besieged’ Hindus. Uniting the Hindus required locating the ‘enemy’, in every nook and corner of the country, on every issue, and crushing them with every possible means. Before ‘Hindu Rashtra’ could be ushered in, every Hindu had to be first communalised and polarised, and better still, made into a vigilante.
Today, law and order is replaced by a moral order as decreed by the powers-that-be and implemented via mob rule; the rule of law is replaced by State-decreed rule by bulldozers; secularism by majoritarianism and Hindu morality, with the State enacting laws to protect the majority and persecute the minorities.
So today, inevitably, we are witness to the ‘saffronisation’ of police, centralisation of power, the breakdown of democratic and constitutional bodies, the emergence of a ‘Surveillance State’ and a ‘Police State’, the use of probe agencies such as the CBI, ED and I-T exclusively against Opposition party members and critics of the government, the adoption of hook-or-crook methods (mis-projected in ‘Hindu’ flavour as ‘saam-dhaan-bhed-dhand’) to topple elected state governments, the release of criminals, murderers and rapists (terming them ‘sanskari brahmins’), while denying even bail to the critics of the government and rights activists. Forgive me for believing that all this portends the rise of a fascist State built on a foundation of majoritarianism.
‘Bharat Jodo’
At such a juncture, the Congress party is finally showing signs of life, getting back to doing some grassroots political mobilisation with its ‘Bharat Jodo’ programme. It is a welcome sign for two reasons. First, the most urgent task today is not to make any promises to the people, false or real, but to repair the damage done to our society by the divisive and destructive politics of the BJP in the last eight years; second, that Rahul Gandhi still feels up to the task of re-energising his party is an assertion of his self-belief to put up a fight against all odds.
But nobody, least of all Rahul himself, should doubt that the odds are stacked heavily against the ‘Bharat Jodo’ project. Divisiveness and hatred have been spread widely and deeply. It will not be easy for those who have gone down that path to turn back and follow the path to our essential civic and civil virtues of living in peace and harmony with fraternal feeling. Nevertheless, if he is to live up to his original or adopted surname – Nehru or Gandhi -- Rahul has to make the best effort he can.
Success or failure will depend on what he can offer to the nation: To the liberal, secular Hindu, can he offer the prospect of a Congress revival when the party is haemorrhaging every day? Can he offer the possibility, however remote, of a Congress victory in elections? To the marginalised and the vulnerable – the Dalits, tribals, minorities, women – can he offer more other than a reiteration of constitutional principles and guarantees? Can he offer a plan to rebuild the organisation at the district, village and ward levels and match the prowess of the BJP’s electoral machine from the booth level upwards? Can he offer the prospect of Opposition unity?
All is not lost yet. The biggest point in favour of the Opposition is the failure of governance by the BJP at the Centre and in the states where it is in power – on law-and-order, jobs, prices, loss of incomes for farmers and workers, while it focuses all its energies into tearing up the social fabric. People will ultimately want food, shelter, jobs, safety and security. They cannot go on fighting the ‘us vs them’ fight forever while being mired in poverty and inequality just so that the BJP can keep winning elections.
(The writer is a former Cabinet Secretariat official)