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Rasheeda Bhagat

POLITICS not only makes for strange bedfellows; it also often presents the sorry spectacle of a political group being hauled over the coals by its trusted friends at the most inappropriate of times. This is what is happening between the BJP and its friends in the saffron brigade, particularly the VHP.

Obviously unhappy with the party that was politically supposed to espouse the cause of the Hindutva lobby and firmly believing, not unjustifiably, that the BJP has reached where it is today due to the appeal to the Hindu majority sentiment, the VHP sants have decided to go on the rampage. Their anger is over the BJP, the leader of the NDA coalition, having done nothing in all its years in power in New Delhi about its associated organisations' one-point charter — building the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

What better time to rake up this issue than on the eve of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, when Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his men cannot but give them a hearing? So there was the chetavani (warning) rath yatra from Ayodhya to Delhi, with its leading lights being received in the Capital by no less than the Prime Minister himself.

In response to the belligerent stance taken by the sants — allow the temple construction to begin by March 12 or get ready to lose power at the Centre — Mr Vajpayee could only show his unhappiness. First, he expressed his displeasure over the choice of the word chetavani.

"For whom is this warning meant; and what is this warning?", he is supposed to have asked the sants at the meeting. He also told them they had to be sensitive about his government's Constitutional obligation to maintain the rule of law; it had to ensure that the verdict of the judiciary was respected and obeyed. And last, but not the least, it was also bound by the NDA manifesto and the sensitivities of its coalition partners. The whole contentious issue could be sorted out either by a court verdict or through negotiation, he said.

Right on cue, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, registered his protest over the VHP raking up the Ayodhya temple issue all over again, and asked the NDA Government to go strictly by the judicial outcome of the dispute.

But the same Mr. Vajpayee, in an obvious bid to placate the angry sants, who have been raising slogans like "Ayodhya bachao; BJP ko hatao" (save Ayodhya, remove the BJP) also directed the Law Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, to examine the two main demands of the VHP on the Ram temple. One relates to the transfer of 47 of the total 67 acres around the disputed site in Ayodhya — the land acquired by the government in 1993 — to the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, controlled by the VHP. The other `sop' the Prime Minister has given the sants is the promise, with which they are hardly impressed, that the Law Ministry will expedite the Ayodhya court case.

The BJP leadership would like to project Mr Vajpayee's decision as nothing out of the ordinary; after all, the Law Ministry had been asked to examine if the acquired land could be handed over to the Nyas. Nothing more and nothing less. But to the Muslims of this country, especially the majority of them who bear the destruction of the Babri Masjid as a sore wound in a corner of their hearts, this would appear a sellout to the VHP and the hardcore Hindutva lobby. On its part, the VHP is hardly rejoicing about the Prime Minister's promise. On the contrary, its leaders have warned that after Shivratri (March 12), they will go ahead with the construction of the Ram Mandir, with or without the blessings of the Government or any other body, judicial or otherwise. They have given a call to the faithful to march to Ayodhya around this time, to give the VHP and the Nyas a hand in the mission before them.

Opposition parties such as the Congress(I) and the Left outfits have, of course, criticised the VHP for its "antics". While senior Congressman Mr Arjun Singh has said it was playing with fire by raking up the Ayodhya issue again, the Leftists have demanded a ban on such organisations as the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. Mr Vajapyee had spelt out during his meetings with the sants that the land they wanted in Ayodhya could be given to them only through a consensus following either a negotiation or a court judgment. In an interesting response to this, the former Prime Minister Mr V. P. Singh said that this only vindicates his stand as prime minister in the early 1990s, which had resulted in the fall of the United Front government.

In a statement issued on Monday, Mr Singh has pointed out: "May I remind the Prime Minister that it was on my taking this very precise stand when I was Prime Minister that he had gone to the then President, Mr R. Venkataraman, with the withdrawal of support letter. At that time I told a delegation led by Dr M. M. Joshi that when your party occupies the chair I am sitting on, you will have to say the same thing".

On Mr Vajpayee's referring the issue of transfer of land to the Law Minister, Mr Singh has said he would have done better "to show the documents signed by the VHP and the then Home Minister, Mr Buta Singh, in which the VHP had given a categorical assurance to abide by court orders." While the issue hangs fire, and it is doubtful if most of majority community would approve of the VHP placing a gun at Mr Vajpayee's head, one fails to understand why this case, which is pending before the apex court, cannot be expedited. Mr V. P. Singh has said that the court be directed to have daily sittings and expedite the judgement, as both the VHP and the Babri Masjid Action Committee were signatories to the resolution that they would accept the court's verdict, whatever it may be.

In the midst of this tamasha, the BJP will have to walk the tightrope during the UP election campaign. Without exactly raising three cheers for the VHP and its allies, something that could land it in trouble with political allies and voters, it will have to keep the Ayodhya story going.

But moving away from politics and politicians and their agendas, public and hidden, cannot the people, particularly the leaders of majority and minority communities at least make an attempt to find a solution to this problem?

Granted, the destruction of the Babri Masjid was a heinous crime. But Muslims have to honestly ask themselves whether this is a wound they will keep nursing forever. Let us not forget that a Congress Prime Minister was in power when the Babri Masjid was reduced to rubble in December 1992. It is doubtful if a BJP-led coalition or, for that matter, any other government can resolve this issue without triggering a lot of animosity — even, perhaps, a bloodbath. And, when there is communal violence, who suffers the most? The minority community, obviously. And most of all, the poor and defenceless, not the powerful leaders.

Can the Muslims of India not come forward to say they do not want any more violence and communal riots? When the court verdict comes, it can go one way or another and, obviously, cannot please both sides. No court verdict can. Is it too much to expect a leadership to evolve and build up opinion among the Muslim public, which could at least consider and debate the possibility of volunteering to give up a claim to the mosque on that very site where it once stood? Can they not ask for the grandest and most beautiful mosque this country has ever seen, 10 km from the disputed site? If this is done, one can be sure that money will pour in from the people of this country to build such a mosque. And, if we take the concept of religion a little beyond just a place of worship, and include in it the two vital needs of education and health-care, the mosque complex could also house the most modern of universities and a state-of-the-art hospital.

Let us at least think along these lines, keeping in mind that the one who gives away something is not weak but, in the real sense of the word, the strong one.

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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