The BJP’s insistence on taking out a rally of more than a million Hindu fundamentalists at Delhi and the Indian government’s halfhearted response to meet the law and order situation have created a climate of crisis. The BJP leadership is upset at the ban imposed on the rally by the Indian government. Its leadership apprehends the imposition of internal emergency. The prime minister has denied any such intention of his government. Rao says that the government will enforce the ban decision and the lawbreakers will have to face the music, the mere ban on a rally has annoyed certain leftist parties such as the C.P. (M) and the C.P.1. These parties evidently take non fundamentalist positions butin reality do not want any serious curbs on the BJP. This is surprising. Are they not aware of what the Hindu fundamentalists did at Ayodhya on December 6? Senior BJP leaders on the eve of the well-planned move to destroy the Muslim shrine had assured that the massive assembly there was merely aimed at holding a prayer meeting and to sing bhajans. Hypocrisy is the second nature of Hindu fundamentalism, what is the guarantee that the Hindu fundamentalists will not destroy several historical structures such as the Qutab Minar and Qutab Lath, apart from indulging in the massacres of Muslims?

The Hindu India’s sensitivity about the restrictions on their democratic rights is in sharp contrast with the complete ruthlessness in imposing draconian laws on the states like Punjab, Kashmir, Assam and other regions where non Hindus are in a majority, the laws like the so-called antiterrorist law have been in force in these states for decades. These laws have been condemned by democracy loving people all over the world. Almost every mainstream Hindu party supported or at any rate tolerated the nakedly dictatorial Jaws and practices in dealing with minorities like Sikhs, Muslims, Christians and others. The way the Hindu fundamentalists are behaving all these years shows that the Indian state has quietly evolved for itself a policy which is far worse than the universally condemned policy of apartheid in vogue in South Africa. There are two sets of laws and practices in India: one applicable to Hindus and the other to non-Hindus. But the state as a whole is slowly nurturing the police state. India’s vast security forces setup has a natural inclination to show utmost sympathy to Hindus but ruthlessness towards. That was symbolically illustrated by a Central Reserve Police Force man paying his obeisance to an idol at Ayodhya where he was supposed to have gone to prevent the destruction of Babri masjid and the Hindu fundamentalists” plan to build a makeshift Ram mandir. Can India’s security forces carry out such a secular assignment? Subsequently when lakhs of Muslims held demonstrations to protest against the masjid destruction, the same security forces shot more than a thousand of Muslims in less than a week.

There is no doubt a small segment of Hindu population does not fully share the fundamentalist world view of the parties like the B.J.P. and its allies, These Hindus mainly consist of lawyers. Some of them have formed human rights groups; Justice Tarkunde heads one such group. Hindu lawyers of Punjab and Haryana high court aye joined their Sikh brethren to stop work for more than 10 days to protest against the brutal murder in police custody of a Sikh advocate of Ropar, his wife and an 18monthold son. The so-called popular chief minister of Punjab is said to be inclined to order a judicial enquiry into the incident but for his police chief K.P.S.Gill. The latter is a Sikh but is willing to outdo the most rabid Hindu fundamentalists in crushing the human rights of others.

 The Indian society and the state, in short, is increasingly getting polarized, One section, at the moment small and insignificant, wants India to be a liberal democracy where minority groups should enjoy equal or nearly equal powers with the majority. But the other, which is far more numerous and powerful, wants India to become a full-fledged fascist State, This segment has police and Security forces as its natural allies, In fact, it will be little wonder if eventually some ambitious members of India’s Security forces take over or at least share the leadership of a fascist India. [tis unrealistic to characterize Congress(I) as secular and democratic, a tendency seen in the western countries as much as in India’s leftist parties which is 4 strange phenomenon. Whether there are sporadic clashes or large scale violence in Delhi’s Janes and bylines on Feb.25 is not much material. What is significant is the trend towards Hindu fundamentalism and fascism. A strong worldwide movement alone can check this dangerous trend in India.

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 26, 1993