(Issues in Secular Politics: May 2006 III)
Whither Promises?
Two Years of UPA and Communal Amity
Ram Puniyani
United Progressive Alliance came to power in the
backdrop of the massive Gujarat carnage and a
worsening communalization of society. Efforts to bring
in harmony and integration were incorporated in the
common minimum program. This CMP did promise to work
for controlling the rising communalization. It
promised to promote amity in the society, it aimed at
winning over the confidence of minorities and to
improve their lot. Where do matters stand two years
down the line as the Govt. is completing its two years
in the office?
POTA had become synonymous with the imprisoning a
section of Muslim youth in particular and putting them
behind the bars in the aftermath of one or the act of
terror. The arbitrary nature of this law was a major
source of torment for a section of community. While
UPA did withdraw it, it failed to do so from the
retrospective effect with the result that a large
section of people which was in the jails continues to
be there. The communal violence bill which was
presented, was drafted on the assumption that police
and administration do not have enough powers during
the violence. So with more powers under their belt
they will be able to control the riot, that’s what the
bill provided for. As such the matters are the other
way around. It is the complicity of these sections
with rioters, it is their proactive role in the
violence that carnage begins and continues. After the
protests by human rights groups the bill was taken
back for reworking and despite a lapse of a long time
one is not hearing much about it. The need is to bring
in a bill, which can punish those in the seats of
powers and not doing their assigned duty to control
the violence. The bill failed to provide suitable
clauses against gendered violence and provisions for
the adequate relief and rehabilitation of the victims
of the violence.
On the positive side, the UPA did take up the issue of
communalized text books and after the gap of two
years, better books are coming out from the NCERT
stable, only pity is that while they cater to a small
section of students a large number of students have to
follow the books by state education boards, many of
which are very communal in nature and leave a lot to
be desired as for as the suitability for the growing
children is concerned.
The role of this government in the potentially
dangerous Baroda riots needs to be given half a clap.
The state administration and the complicit communal
organizations like VHP, RSS and Bajrang dal etc are
having a field day in this Hindu Rashtra of Gujarat.
The pressure put by the human rights groups did have
its impact and the central intervention brought a halt
to the carnage unleashed by the Sangh combine and
state and municipal administrations, which in Gujarat,
have become part of the Sangh combine.
While most of the things are not taken serious note of
as many of these issues come under the purview of
state Govt., time has come to see that if any incident
has deeper repercussions on the national unity they
should be taken up by center in all sincerity. The aim
of winning over the confidence of minorities is no
where in sight, currently the minorities have to hide
in their cocoons for security. The Rajinder Sacchar
Committee report is keenly awaited but the glimpses of
it as coming through some section of media show that
the social and human development indices of Muslims
have slid in the downward direction. One awaits the
Govt response on the plans to develop education and
employment schemes for minorities. The much promised
commission for minority education is nowhere in sight.
The attempts to curtail the acts of terror have been
restricted to the Muslims names alone. In a major
blast which occurred in Nanded on 6th April in the
house of RSS sympathizers, the people who got
accidentally killed while making the bomb belonged to
Bajrang Dal. Proper investigation of this blast is
nowhere in sight.
The creeping fascism through the change in attitudes
of the Administration and Police is slowly
strangulating the society. These are the visible parts
of communalization of society due to the deeper
processes at work. The intense propaganda and word of
mouth campaign by the communal forces has vitiated the
social thinking to the hilt and the emotional divide
between religious communities is increasing, with
every passing day the possibility of the divide being
bridged appears to be a very difficult prospect. If
this is not addressed through the awareness programs
of communal harmony we cannot hope for the prospering
of the Indian identity, Indian nation. The sectarian
identities around religion are already flourishing.
UPA governments’ promises will remain totally
unfulfilled if the riots are not controlled. During
last few years the faith based obscurantist trends as
manifested in Babas, Acharyas and Bapus is on the
rise. Criticsing them has become hazardous and some of
them are now adorning the status of brand ambassadors
of states, with all the state functionaries attending
and bowing to them. The constitution tells us to
uphold the rational though and spirit, now and open
embrace with blind faith is shamelessly visible.
In adivasi areas the development funds are being
channeled to promote religiosity as witnessed in the
Shabri Kumbh festival in Dangs. The places of
religious worship of the minority community are being
taken over or demolished with the full cooperation
from local authorities. The civil society is becoming
more and more apathetic to the plight of minorities.
This in turn is resulting in the development of
sectarian thinking amongst minorities themselves who
have started feeling that they are outcastes, being
pushed out from the concept of the national community.
The ghettotisation, the division between
minority-majority, is sowing the seeds which can take
the form of violence on the pretext of even a small
incident.
Though the Govt. has constituted National in
Integration Council, its hardly playing any role in
integrating the nation, currently its no more than the
listening post for the authorities that be, if at all.
UPA is acting in a sluggish manner to the serious
threats to the body politic of our society and nation.
A mere patch work will not do, mere running to control
the Barodas won’t do, what we need is a far sighted
approach to weed out the communal thought process and
associated activities of communal nature.
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