NEW DELHI: Intelligence sources apprehended that Thursdays attack on the Ekta Yatra by militants in Punjab may just be the beginning of a wider communal backlash in the county.
Sources said that these disturbances may eventually snow-ball into a bloody confrontation between the majority and different minority groups. They also cited the communal backlash triggered by the BJPs earlier programs including Ram Shilla Pujan in 1989 and Advani’s rath yatra in 1990 to Ayodhya.
The sources said that the BYP was bent on polarizing the country on communal lines ironically in the name of uniting when in fact. It could lead to the dismemberment of the nation Is the BJP prepared to pay so high a price for the second time in less than 50 years merely to become the ruling party of the country and see one of its leaders installed as the Prime Minister? Neither the Congress nor the Janata Dal nor the interim Chandra. Shekhar government went so far in the pursuit of office.
While BJP leaders like Lal Krishna Advani and Muril Manohar Joshi had dismissed warnings of a communal backlash when both the yatra’s began subsequent events proved them tragically wrong.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 7, 1992
