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Cornered Vajpayee faces minority upsurge

George Iype in New Delhi

The increasing atrocities on minority communities -- especially Christians and Muslims -- across the country after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government took over nearly nine months ago are set to put Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the dock next week.

A confrontation between the BJP and the Opposition parties led by the Congress and the Left on the issue is likely to embarrass the government and some of its allies when Parliament debates the issue on Monday.

As it is, the BJP found itself isolated in Parliament when the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal threatened to 'liberate' the Sufi Bababudangiri shrine in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, this week.

To add to Vajpayee's discomfiture, massive rallies are being organised by Christian and Muslim groups this week to protest against attacks on them by the BJP's allied organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal.

The BJP leadership fears this combined attack on the Vajpayee government by Christian and Muslim groups, supported by a resurgent Congress, could further discredit the coalition.

Tomorrow, Christian groups all over the country will shut down schools and colleges to observe a 'national protest day' against violence and atrocities on churches, missionaries, and church-run institutions.

According to the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, the atrocities against Christians in India have been the highest since the Vajpayee government came into power.

"Violence against Christians in 1998 alone is more than the total incidents of crime against the Christian community from 1964 to 1997," said UCFHR convener John Dayal.

According to UCFHR statistics, there have been 65 incidents of killing, rape, attacks, and kidnapping Christians in 1998, against 48 similar acts between 1964 and 1997.

"The anti-Christian activity has been aggressive in its scale, magnitude, and severity after the BJP government came to power," Dayal told Rediff On The NeT.

"Christian educational and developmental organisations are victims of the violence, together with priests and preachers. They are being targeted because they have been sensitising and empowering the people, particularly those who were exploited and subjugated," he said.

The UCFHR will submit to Parliament tomorrow the list of 65 atrocities against Christians in 1998. They include the disrobing of Father Christudas in Dumka, Bihar, the murder of two priests in Bihar and the North-East, assaults on priests, nuns and preachers in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Orissa, and other states, and the rape of three nuns in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh.

The attempt by the UCFHR, the biggest Christian forum that is now fighting the BJP and other organisations affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is also to convince members of Parliament that the Sangh Parivar's argument that the Church is busy converting India's Hindu population is a lie.

Meanwhile, with the sixth anniversary of the demolition of the 16^th century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya just three days away, the government fears threats from another quarter -- militant Muslim groups.

This will be the first anniversary of the event with a BJP government ruling the country. And, interestingly, the anniversary falls on Sunday, like the fateful day six years ago.

The government has made elaborate security arrangements to counter any disruptive activities by Muslim groups, especially in south India, where intelligence agencies have warned of possible bomb blasts.

Several Muslim organisations in the south, which have called for observing December 6 as a 'black day', are planning to hold rallies across the country despite the ban ordered by state governments.

According to Union home ministry officials, groups like Al-Umma, which was responsible for the bombings in Coimbatore in February, have threatened violent action in Tamil Nadu on December 6. The blasts on the eve of the general election had killed 46 people.

Already, apprehending violence, the United States embassy has advised American nationals against taking part in mass gatherings and asked them to be generally watchful of their surroundings across south India.

While the Christians and Muslims are thus set for a showdown with a government which has been battered in last week's assembly poll, and the BJP needs all the help it can get, many of its own coalition partners are going to find it difficult to stand by their ally.

Regional parties like the Telugu Desam Party and the National Conference, which support the Vajpayee government from outside are unlikely to come to the rescue during the parliamentary debate on attacks on minorities.

The minorities are crucial vote banks for both the TDP and the Conference. And with Andhra Pradesh scheduled to have an assembly election next year, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu will have to do some good tightrope acts to woo the minorities in his state.

Other allies in government, like the Samata Party of George Fernandes and the Lok Shakti of Ramakrishna Hegde, are also unlikely to bail out Vajpayee. Both Fernandes and Hegde are politicians with a secular image of long standing, which they can ill afford to lose in defending the indefensible.

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