The Hindu, September 24, 2008
Editorial
Yeddyurappa protests too much
Whatever Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa might have to say about the political motives of the Centre in issuing an Article 355 advisory on the thuggish attacks on Christian institutions in Karnataka, two aspects of the truth stand out. The first is that the law and order machinery of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s first government in southern India was atrociously slow to respond to the widespread targeted violence by Hindutva groups across the State. Secondly, only after the central advisory was issued did the State government order a judicial inquiry into the violence and act (in minimalist fashion) against Bajrang Dal activists who were openly inciting violence against the minority community. It says a lot about the BJP’s current political agenda that it took several days of terror and intimidation by Hindutva activists for its government in Karnataka to announce that it would invoke the Anti-Goonda Act against those vandalising Christian prayer halls and churches. For more than a week, Chief Minister Yeddyurappa did nothing to assuage the feelings of the minority community. When eventually he called on the Catholic Archbishop of Bangalore, Bernard Moras, to ‘hear’ the grievances of the community, it seemed no more than a gesture of political necessity. What is damningly clear is that without the combined pressure from the central government, secular opposition parties, human rights groups, and the media, the BJP regime would have allowed the situation to worsen in the expectation of making political capital out of communal violence.
For his part, Archbishop Bernard Moras did well to speak truth to power. He conveyed to the Chief Minister a law-abiding but defenceless community’s sense of deep hurt and horror at the violence. He pointed out that police was trying to pass off the organised violence against Christians as cases of petty theft and burglary. The systematic nature of the communal attacks and the threats issued by local Bajrang Dal leaders were being deliberately overlooked in the investigations. The Archbishop’s post-meeting outburst in front of the media was also fully justified. After all, the Chief Minister could not resist blaming the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) for ‘conspiring’ to bring down his government by ‘organising’ the attacks. No sober person wants the Centre to intrude into the constitutional domain of the States. But for Karnataka to invoke the federal principle in this case — which has raised questions about a constitutional breakdown down the road — is of no avail. If the Yeddyurappa regime and the sangh parivar fail to learn the proper lessons from this ugly chapter, they will certainly make a mess of the electoral mandate the BJP won in May.
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