Heroic pseudo-secular much ado about nothing

V SUNDARAM

Michel Eyguem De Montaine (1533-1592), the great Renaissance French writer said in the 16th century: 'No man is exempt from talking nonsense. The misfortune is to do it solemnly'. Perhaps Montaine had pseudo-secular political eunuchs like Shivraj Patil in view when he spoke those timeless words of wisdom. I am referring to the comedy of Shivraj Patil putting himself in a state of combat readiness to deal with the localised riot situation in Vadodara and thereby endeavouring to make mountain of a mole hill situation.

Four days ago the Municipal authorities in Vadodara in Gujarat demolished a wayside Darga and also a few temples to make one of the roads fit for traffic after obtaining Court Orders. This led to communal riots resulting in the imposition of a curfew. Explosive incidents are still rocking the area.

It has been reported that the Centre has given what is called a 'firm' message to the so called Saffronized Narendra Modi Government in Gujarat, asking them to take all necessary steps to ensure that violence ends in the trouble-hit Vadodara. The ever sleeping Union Government in respect of all the Indian citizens excepting in the case of their favourite non-saffron minorities have declared that they are closely watching the situation and that they are ready to take any action to control it. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil has declared with brazen bravado: 'I don't think that these kind of situations can remain uncontrolled. The state government has to do it and we will see that it is done. We are watching and the state government must end the violence.'

Meanwhile, in a bid to contain the violence, the Centre has dispatched more than 500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel to be deployed in and around the trouble-torn city. Army units and paramilitary units have been sent to Vadodara and other affected areas of Gujarat. The Centre has also offered all kinds of assistance to the state government.

Not only the Hindus of Jammu and Kashmir but also the 750 millions of Hindus in the rest of India would like to ask Shivaraj Patil as to where was he when 32 innocent Hindus, including women and children, were shot dead during midnight in two villages of Doda District in Kashmir four days ago. Why no firm message was given to the non-saffron, non-communal and supinely secular Gulam Nabi Azad, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir to take immediate action to apprehend the Muslim marauders? Are innocent Hindu lives meant to be treated like disposable fodder?

During the last three decades, communal and caste violence has acquired endemic proportions in Gujarat. The Ahmedabad-Vadodara belt has been a witness to some of most gruesome instances of violence, claiming hundreds of lives.

Let me give some instances to illustrate this point. During 1961-71, 16 of the 17 districts in Gujrat saw communal violence, recording some 685 incidents in urban areas and 114 in rural. Of the 685 incidents recorded for the decade, 578 occurred in 1969 alone, which proved to be the worst of the riots during the decade. Starting with Ahmedabad, the worst affected city, violence spread to several other places including Vadodara. The non-saffron Congress Party was ruling the State during that period. (Was it then the glorious deed of secular Congress or communal Narendra Modi?!)

The 70s and 80s saw growing incidence of caste and communal tensions in Vadodara. Popular movements and agitations in the city began in 1974 with the Navnirman movement, which had begun as a secular protest against Chimanbhai Patel's government, and later got linked with Jayaprakash Narayan's movement.

October-November 1978 saw prolonged rioting in Vadodara, affecting the localities of Wadi, Chaukhandi, Ahmedabadi Pole, Raopura road, and Pratapnagar. (Was it then the glorious deed of secular Congress or communal Narendra Modi?!)

Communal tensions resurfaced in 1981 and persisted for over a year between September 1981 and December 1982. The city went through several bouts of rioting interspersed with moments of uneasy calm. (Was it then the glorious deed of secular Congress or communal Narendra Modi?!)

Now to come to the current riot situation in Vdodara in Gujarat. The Congress party in New Delhi is trying to play petty communal politics with an eye on minority vote banks. The great tragedy of petty party politics based on Muslim minority appeasement is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. Truly it has been said that to a clear eye the smallest fact is a window through which the Infinite may be seen. What are the brutal and unassailable facts in this case? The Gujarat High Court passed an order on Monday last directing the authorities in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot to remove all illegal places of worship and consequently all the municipal authorities swung into immediate action to prepare a list of such illegal structures. While no exact figures are available, estimates suggest that the number of illegal places of worship in the four cities of Gujarat will exceed 5,000. Ahmedabad is believed to have over 2,000 such structures, followed by Surat and Rajkot with estimated 1,100 and 1,000 respectively. A senior Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation official has said that they have been carrying out demolitions, albeit low key, but following the HC directive, it will be geared up. He refused to comment on the probability of more violence erupting, but insisted that the demolition process will be completed. Meanwhile, the Rajkot Municipal Corporation is not too worried as majority of the big religious structures have already been demolished in the past two years. The fundamental fact to be noted is that the majority of the demolished structures were temples and not Madrasas or Darghas or Mosques. The Vishva Hindu Parishad or Bajrang Bali or any other Hindu Organization have not launched any agitation against the demolition of temples.Recently I finished reading an op-ed article in Toronto Star, Canada's widely-circulated daily, by Tarek Fatah, a Pakistani-Canadian Muslim activist and broadcaster. He finds it incomprehensible that while the demolition of the Babri mosque by Hindu zealots at Ayodhya in India continues to remain an emotive issue with Muslims, what the Saudi Arabian Government authorities plan to do with several historic and sacred Islamic heritage sites in Saudi Arabia has evoked no protest at all from the Muslims round the world. For instance, they are planning to demolish the 'home of the Prophet' in Makkah. What makes this demolition worse is the fact that the 'home of the Prophet' is to make way for a parking lot, two 50-storey hotel towers and seven 35-storey apartment blocks; a project known as the Jabal Omar Scheme, all within a stone's throw of the Grand Mosque. Yet despite this outrage, not a single Muslim country, no ayatollah, no mufti, no king, not even a Muslim Canadian imam has dared to utter a word in protest. Such is the power of Saudi Government influence on the Muslim narrative.According to Fatah the cultural massacre of Islamic heritage sites is not a new phenomenon. It is said that in the last two decades, 95 per cent of Makkah's 1,000-year-old buildings have been demolished. In the early 1920s, the Saudi rulers Aal-e-Sa'ud bulldozed and leveled a graveyard in Medina � Cemetery of Al-Baqee - that housed the shrines of the holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his pure progeny)'s daughter Fatimah Az-Zahraa, his grandsons Imam Hasan Al-Mojtaba, Imam Zein-ol Abideen, Imam Baqer, Imam Jafar As-Sadeq, and his companions. The house where holy Prophet's beloved daughter Sayyedah Fatimah Az-Zahraa was born as well as house of his wife Sayyedah Khadija were demolished under the pretext of expansion project. Will the mobs all over India who went on a rampage over the publication of a blasphemous cartoon in a Danish Newspaper, be prepared to go to Saudi Arabia to protest against the atrocities let loose by the Saudi Arabian Government against historic Islamic heritage sites? Will the Union Minister for Minorities, the ever compassionate A R Antulay, be prepared to lead a contingent of Mullahs and Moulvis from all parts of India to Saudi Arabia to effectively intervene in the matter of destruction of Islamic heritage sites? Are they not as important from the global Islamic point of view as the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and the Dargha in Vadodara? They are not worried about upholding the cause of Islam either in India or abroad. They are only interested in the petty politics of pseudo secularism and minority vote banks. Tarek Fatah concludes: 'Today Saudi petrodollars have the ability to silence even its most vocal critics, but when all is said and done, history will render a harsh judgment on those who try to wipe out its footprints and steal the heritage of all humanity.' Making people believe in a history of Hindu-Muslim unity is not an easy task. No one put it in better perspective than Will Durant who summed up as follows: 'The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying from within'.