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Tolerating the Intolerant

Yet another incident of violence against Christians: This time the killings were those of Graham Stewart Stains, who has worked among leprosy patients in Orissa for the last 36 years, and his two young sons. Once again, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Home Minister L K Advani have condemned the murders. And, as usual, political leaders and top officials from Delhi have rushed to the spot.

This is a familiar pattern. But what one missed this time was the prime minister's statement that there should be a debate on conversions or the home minister's leak to the press that such and such church gets so many millions of dollars from abroad.

Instead of accepting the responsibility for misgovernance -- L K Advani emphasised at the inter-state council meeting that the Centre had to be respondent to its constitutional obligation on law and order in the states -- both prime minister and home minister have been finding alibis to condone the dastardly acts that the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, members of the RSS Parviar, have been committing all over the country without challenge or remorse.

The prime minister goes to Gujarat and gives a clean chit to Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel who is from the RSS's hard core, despite his failure to protect the missionaries. The home minister visits Maharashtra and prostrates before Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray to let him allow the Pakistani cricket team to play, not in Bombay but in Madras and elsewhere.

Neither had the prime minister the courage to dismiss the Gujarat government for its complicity in attacks on Christians, as the Central Minorities Commission has brought out in its interim report, nor had the home minister the guts to even warn Thackeray that enough was enough, the Centre would take action against him and his Shiv Sena-led government (The BJP did not even threaten to withdraw its support).

The result is that the Gujarat chief minister says there was much ado about nothing and the RSS Parivar burns two more churches. Thackeray condescends to issue a statement, not to express regret, but to say that he has agreed to suspend the agitation in deference to the prime minister's wishes.

What face -- or authority -- has the BJP-led government at the Centre if its resolve to fight communalists-cum-criminals ends in surrender?

Advani goes on to say that no one from the RSS can be a criminal. The Orissa police have already held the Bajrang Dal responsible for the killing of Stains and his children. Is the home minister's observation based on his bias in favour of the RSS Parivar or some factual information? The real reason is lack of will by the home minister to take action.

The VHP, which has been indulging in anti-social activities and targeting the minorities from December 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished, and the Bajrang Dal which has been singling out Christians from December 1998, are emboldened because no punishment has been administered.

During the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, the Congress government of Narasimha Rao was mixed up with communal elements. Now the BJP is equivocal because of the RSS involvement. How can the prime minister and the home minister, both ardent followers of the RSS, be expected to act against members of its Parivar?

Even if one assumed the BJP is a liberal wing of the RSS, the BJP cannot take on the RSS. The BJP's Bangalore session only underlined the fact; liberals in the party can deliver sensible speeches but cannot make them good because they have little support at the grassroots, where the RSS is supreme.

BJP chief Kushabhau Thakre may have retraced his steps to concede that there cannot be any backseat driving. The prime minister may have said that the government's job is to govern. But these statements make no difference. The fact is that the BJP wing of government is too indulgent towards the Hindu zealots to take action lest it should displease Hindutva followers, its dependable voters.

At least the home minister, whether he belongs to the liberal or the hard group in the BJP, has not been doing his job of instilling confidence in the minorities. Muslims are depressed and demoralised and the Christians are being put in line. That is what Hindutva is all about.

In fact, during the 10-month rule of the BJP-led coalition, the entire fabric of the country's pluralism has been coming apart. Communal forces have been let loose. The RSS Parivar has released the genie of Hindu fundamentalism from the bottle. It is no use telling it to behave or get back into the bottle. The philosophy of accommodation and tolerance that once inspired the nation is in tatters.

The pace has been disturbed deliberately. All fundamentalists, whatever their religion, are coming to the top. Of course, the RSS is in the lead because it sees in the BJP an opportunity to Hinduise the society.

In fact, the consciousness of identity and its assertiveness has spread so widely among Hindus that every writer, every artist and every thinker is wary of what he writes, draws or says.

Freedom and spontaneity -- the two traits or creativity -- are under pressure. The RSS Parivar has been casting Hinduism into such a rigid mould that it is getting defaced and defamed. Hinduism is pluralistic, compassionate and accommodative. It can neither be monolithic nor restricted to one discipline. It is a way of life. This is its strong point, which the RSS is determined to defeat.

What is worse is that most Hindus, particularly the intellectuals, have begun to reconcile with what the BJP-cum-RSS is doing. They failed the country during the Emergency (1975-77) and they are failing it again. Their awareness of what is right, and their desire to act according to what is right, have been suppressed by fear or threat. They are mere opportunists.

Yet it is the duty of Hindus, who constitute 82 per cent of the population, to speak out not only against the violence against minorities but also against indignities within society. The community, on the whole, may be unhappy over what is being done to Christians or others who are less in number. But the Hindus should not curb their voice. By doing so, many will be exposing themselves to the goondaism of chauvinism.

This is the price they have to pay to protect their religion -- and the country -- against pseudo-Hindus. If they remain quiet today, they will lose the right to speak tomorrow.

This is what happened in Germany when Hitler came to power. "First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me." So wrote Pastor Neimoller about persecution by the Nazis.

Kuldip Nayar