The Hindu Business Line : The bane of growing intolerance

SLOWLY, but surely, we seem to be moving towards the path of being less tolerant and more acrimonious towards those whose line of thinking is out of sync with ours. Hence, the increasing number of protests and attacks on politicians and other icons by those in rival camps.

On March 12, angry Youth Congress activists blocked the entry of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narenda Modi, into Kolkata for an hour by holding a black flag demonstration in front of the airport.

Nearly 200 activists, holding placards with anti-Modi slogans, prevented him from exiting the airport, saying that his presence would "vitiate West Bengal's secular fabric". He was in the city to participate in a meeting organised by a newspaper.

But thanks to the city's police force, he was escorted safely to his hotel, though after some delay.

While he could at least enter the city to complete the assignment, Bollywood actress/activist and former Member of Parliament Ms Shabana Azmi was not so lucky. When she flew into Ahmedabad last week to participate in a meet on the missing girl child organised by the non-governmental organisation — Chetna — of which she is one of the trustees, and later to address a press conference, she faced a storm of protest from the BJP's Mahila Morcha.

She has become a persona non grata for the Sangh Parivar for her utterances against Mr Narendra Modi and for raising on international platforms the human rights violations in the 2002 communal carnage in Gujarat.

The Chetna office is located at Khadiya, which is a stronghold of the BJP.

With the NGO receiving threats that if she came there, she would be greeted "with a garland of jootas" and the Chetna office would be ransacked, Ms Shabana Azmi made a hasty retreat to Mumbai, without completing her engagements.

And, now, we have the unsavoury episode involving the Union Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad , who was attacked with stones, footwear , water pouches and ice cubes in Gujarat when he reached the site where the Sabarmati Express collided with a goods train near Vadodara. What should have been a serious debate on the increasing number of railway accidents turned into a free-for-all between the BJP and its allies, on the one hand, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal and other United Progressive Alliance constituents, on the other. Obviously, Mr Lalu Prasad is not the most popular of politicians in the BJP-ruled Gujarat, particularly after he ordered a departmental inquiry into the Godhra tragedy of 2002. The Banerjee Commission came out with findings that Mr Lalu Prasad used extensively at his elections meeting during the recent Bihar polls, although with little success!

While Mr Lalu Prasad's RJD demanded the dismissal of the Modi Government, and the Home Ministry sought an inquiry into the attack, the BJP hit back demanding Mr Lalu Prasad's resignation over the rail accident.

Forgotten in the midst of the violence, charges and counters, and political brinkmanship were the tears and sorrow of families of the dead and those injured in the accident.

Thinly veiled behind all this acrimony are the recent setbacks faced by protagonists such as the Gujarat Chief Minister or the Railway Minister. The latter is still seething that his party's — rather his family's — long years of durbar and patronage in Patna were brought to a rude end after the Bihar Assembly elections threw up a deadlocked House. And Mr Modi is, of course, fuming at the drastic transformation of his image from one-time-BJP hero to one whose leadership is being questioned by many of his own MLAs. To add insult to injury, the ghosts of 2002 appear to be haunting him; he had to suffer the ignominy of being denied a visa to the US.

Close on its heels came the snub from the UK, where the Government declined to give him state security during a planned visit when human rights activists had threatened to hold protest marches.

This development made a mockery of Mr Modi's waxing eloquence from television channels after the US refusal of visa; how in Australia various Governors had met him; and senior politicians and officials from countries such as Singapore had welcomed him, and so on.

Forget foreign nations putting roadblocks in the way of national icons by denying them visa or security, we seem to be marching towards an era when regions of our own country will be closed to politicians belonging to rival parties or ideologies. Mr Lalu Prasad never tires of telling journalists how he had stopped the BJP veteran, Mr L. K. Advani's first rath yatra in Bihar, but now it appears that he might have to face hurdles when visiting a Gujarat today and maybe a Rajasthan tomorrow.

If this yardstick continues to be applied, leaders from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which are perennially squabbling over the Cauvery waters, may not be able to visit Bangalore or Chennai without facing stones and sticks. And each time such ugly incidents happen will the people of this country have to put up with ridiculous claims of dismissal of an elected government or the resignation of a minister?

Time was when people used the ballot to decide on winners and losers. Is this country, so fiercely proud of its democratic tradition, going to sit back and watch helplessly as electoral battles give way to street fights? Then what happens to the rule of law?

If our leaders/icons can be attacked so brazenly or prevented from visiting part of the country because the colour of their ideology is not liked by a certain section, what happens to ordinary citizens and their disputes?

Instead of settling property or other disputes in courts, will they take a leaf out of the books of their leaders and battle it out on the streets? Will might become right for all the people all the time, as it is now for some people some time?Make no mistake about it, if this becomes the norm; it will suit nobody better than the politicians.

So when tragedies happen, such as the train accident near Vadodara, instead of the Railway Minister and his officials being held to account for a deteriorating record on Railway safety, the Centre's attention will be engaged in playing a referee between a Lalu and a Modi. We are constantly told that India Inc is on its way to becoming an economic powerhouse. Is it not time that our politicians grew up too?

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

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