State Support For Hate In Rajasthan (Edit., Economic Times)

(The Economic Times - May 08, 2005)

A Gujarat in the making?
EDITORIAL

State Support For Hate In Rajasthan

The fog of communal venom hangs heavy over Rajasthan, no thanks to the brazen anti-minorityism being propagated by the sangh parivar over the past couple of months. The Vasundhara Raje government, which has the responsibility to protect the democratic-secular ethos of the Constitution, has reportedly been using every subterfuge to renege on its role.

That is alarming. Rajasthan shouldn’t become a second Gujarat. The sangh parivar has had considerable influence, traditionally, in the state’s southern parts.

What is worrying now is the impunity with which the RSS and the Bajrang Dal have used two local incidents of murder to whip up communal passions in Bhilwara. The consequent violence has forced Muslims to migrate from the district, and a few brave souls, who have dared to come back, live amid social boycott and fear. That is disgraceful.

Even more reprehensible is the patronage reportedly extended by the state home minister to purveyors of communal hatred. That underscores the complicity of the BJP government in office, which, incidentally, has revoked the ban on the practice of trishul diksha.

Replacing primeval custom with modern contract is part of political evolution. Rajasthan is characterised by archaic social relations inherited from its earlier avatar of Rajputana, a region that even ancient reformist currents like Buddhism had passed by. An abysmal sex ratio and back-breaking poverty testify to stunted social development.

The national movement and social reform had passed this region of princely states by. Mainstream parties came to the region only in the early ‘50s, bringing with them the politics of mobilisation based on caste, community and feudal loyalties.

This has provided a receptive ambience for the sangh parivar’s communal ideology, which, however, is irreconcilable with governance in a constitutionally-ordained secular polity. Does the BJP want Rajasthan to become another Gujarat?