Author:
Publication: Vigil
Date: June 6, 2005
URL: http://www.vigilonline.com/news/plain_speak/ps_view.asp?plainSpeakId=86
I have been maintaining for some
time now that attempts to de-Hinduise the polity is really aimed at de-nationalising
the Indian state. How else can one explain away the fact that wherever
Muslims have usurped and illegally occupied Hindu territory that site acquires
the legal respectability accorded by a de-Hinduised system of being 'disputed'
whether it be J&K or the Ramjanmabhumi.
Six terrorists entered the holy
of holies, the Ramjanmabhumi, two of them human bombs, in a jeep loaded
with explosives and no one except the RSS and the parivar talks about this
being an assault on Hindu sensibilities. Not one media journalist or commentator,
not a single non-BJP politician, not one important public person calls
this an attack against the Hindus, the Hindu religion. The human rights
industry is silent, our 'peace' activists are silent and all self-styled
Gandhians are silent too.
Sonia Gandhi's Congress, including
the de-Hinduised Hindus in the party kept referring to the temple as 'the
structure'. Sonia Gandhi did not commiserate with the Hindus, she did not
express grief for the attack against Hindu sensibilities; she called it
an attack on 'national prestige'. She may well have been talking about
the India International Center. The Prime Minister called it 'the structure'
and in his address to the nation in the evening, he called it 'a place
of worship'. Not even a Hindu place of worship. This was de-Hinduised secular
Indian polity at its worst. It was 'the structure' all the way and Ramjanmabhumi/Babri
Masjid.
NDTV was repeatedly telling us not
to 'communalise' the issue, not to 'politicise' the issue. Hindus were
not supposed to say that it was a jihadi Muslim attack, we were not supposed
to ask why the Prime Minister kept saying 'the structure' was safe. NDTV
featured in great detail someone from the AIMPLB warning communal Hindus
not to take advantage of the situation to effect any change in the 'disputed'
status quo. And Barkha Dutt squinted her eyes and pursed her lips as she
kept repeating that the terrorists had prayed at a local Hindu temple before
attacking the Ramjanmabhumi. She was insinuating, Hindus have swallowed
such insulting insinuations even earlier with no resistance, that there
is probably more to the attack than what is popularly believed if these
terrorists went and prayed at a 'local Hindu temple'.
The BJP is so completely de-Hinduised
and secularized now that besides making a few noises in street corners
today and waving their hands in protest, they will do little else. I have
also been maintaining that having stepped up the tempo of de-Hinduising
the BJP, our adversaries are raising the scale and magnitude of the attacks
against Hindu structures and Hindu sensibilities. First the genocide of
Kashmiri Hindus followed by the Hindus of Jammu, then the overbearing presence
of the Roman-Catholic Italian in Indian polity, then the attack against
Amarnath Yatris, then two attacks against the Raghunath Mandir in Jammu,
then the attack against Hindu pilgrims in Godhra, then the attack on the
Akshardham Temple in Gujarat, then the arrest of the Kanchi Acharya, and
now the attack on the Ramjanmabhumi. They are testing the reactions of
Hindu society, Hindu religious leaders and Hindu organizations. They are
also testing Indian polity and important persons in public life. They have
the answer - the Hindus of this country are orphans. They are voiceless,
defenceless and above all powerless. They are also leaderless.
And as has been historically usual
about Hindus, this time too Hindus maintained 'communal harmony' and 'law
and order'even in the face of extreme provocation. We valued communal harmony
and tolerance over Hindu pride yet again. Not that the US State Department
is going to reward us. Advani told the Pakistanis that December 6 was the
saddest day of his life. Perhaps someone in Pakistan took him at his word.
Perhaps the attack on Ramjanmabhumi yesterday was to give him an opportunity
to set right what he considered to be a grievous wrong and return the 'Katasraj'
compliment. Indian polity can continue with its systemic anti-Hindu bias
with greater rigour. There is a new entrant into the camp. Who will protect
the Hindus now?
