NEW DELHI; Indian prime minister Narasimha Rao who is not tired of calling the various minority groups fighting for their rights as “extremist, terrorist, or fundamentalist” described Brahman sadhus engaged in violating the order of the highest court at Ayodhya as “religious leaders” and held secret talks with them. Rao himself belongs to the Brahman community. Strongly resisting pressure from Rajput leaders } Arjan Singh, Maratha leader Sharad Pawar and others, the prime minister held talks with sadhus about the need for abandoning construction work at Ayodhya. Arjun Singh and others had been pleading that strong action should be taken against the sadhu engaged in the temple building activity on the disputed site contrary to courts’ order. The dissident leaders’ argument was that the foundation of Indian secularism would be undermined if the sadhus were allowed to continue to flout the court’s order. It was further argued that the government’s inactivity would send wrong signals to the minority communities and the international public opinion that India had two different yardsticks in its relations with the majority and minority communities, Sadhus stopped construction work following the secret talks with the prime minister and BJ.P. leader Advani described Rao’s altitude at the talks as “sincere.”
‘The prime minister later told India’s parliament that he had struck no deal with the Vishva Hindu Parishad on the Ayodhya issue. Rao said his dialogue had paved the way for an “amicable settlement” of the dispute. A time limit of four months had been set by him . Nothing else had transpired at the meeting.
“The sadhus were coming in the way of stopping construction work. The U.P. chief minister said he could not shoot them. A constitutional hurdle had to be overcome. I called the sadhus in the interest of the nation, They alone could be instrumental in stopping the work,” Rao said.
Earlier, the Janata Dal and leftist members raised several questions such as: whether the construction already made in violation of the court order would be demolished; why had no action been taken against V.H.P.-B.J.P. combine for violating the court order, was there unanimity in the council of ministers on how to resolve the Ayodhya dispute etc but the prime minister gave no answers to all these questions,
Observers feel that the work on the Ram temple was started by Hindu fundamentalists at the insistance of the Indian central government. Its aim was two-fold to drive a wedge between the BJ.P. and the V.H.P. Bajrang Dal combine and to distract country’s attention to the massive Rs 5000 crore bank scandal. The work was stopped as planned after a good deal of drama whereby threats of military action and dismissal of the U.P, state government were held out, the state’s governor was called for “talks” and the central home minister rushed to Ayodhya to “assess” the situation.
Observers also take a careful note of the Hindu fundamentalist nature of the Indian state which refuses to take action Against its own kin even in the face of blatant violation of court’s orders while the same Indian state mounts Hindu armed forces against Sikhs, Muslims, Christians and other minority and tribal groups under cover of restoring law and order.
The prime minster himself as well as his government controlled media describes Brahman sadhus as “religious leaders” but calls Sikh religious leaders like the late Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as “Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale” and others as terrorists,
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 7, 1992
