Author: AR Kanangi
Publication: The Afternoon Despatch
and Courier
Date: March 16, 2002.
The much-maligned, tolerant, liberal
organisation is under attack
ARREST the leaders. They are fanatics.
They are whipping up communal frenzy. They are a menace to the country.
They are intolerant. They receive funds from foreign sources. These need
to be probed. And they do not allow us to convert people.
And they commit the additional crime
of siding with a political party - the BJP. Ban the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP).
And in Godhra some 60 VHP activists
were burnt alive. And what was their crime? They have dared to demand the
construction of a temple at Ayodhya - the birthplace of King Rama. They
were pilgrims going back home after visiting holy Ayodhya.
The savage mob mercifully gave the
ill-fated passengers a choice: They could come out and get cut to pieces
or stay inside the coaches and get burnt alive.
Hindu philosophy
And the leaders of this blood-thirsty
mob were Congressmen. No wonder the Congress party tried to downplay the
gory happening there and tried to turn the spotlight on the killings in
Ahmedabad.
The VHP does not kill. It is a non-violent,
peaceful organisation. Its leader Ashok Singhal is a mild-mannered individual.
The VHP has no plan at all to work against the interests of Muslims or
Christians. Of course, it is dead set against conversion. It is precisely
because of this the Muslim and Christian clergy are against it. They regard
it as a thorn in their path. They are unhappy that the VHP is preventing
them from getting salvation - particularly to illiterate, innocent tribes.
If only they stop conversion, they can build total rapport with the VHP.
The VHP does not convert anyone.
It is of course spreading the Hindu philosophy worldwide - not so much
the Hindu religion. The Hindu philosophy is great - it is one of the inquiries
made by thinkers all over the world into the nature of things. Many people
in the West - particularly the thinkers - are all praise for the Hindu
philosophy.
The Hindu has no quarrel with other
systems of thought. His perception is: 'sarva loka sukhi bavanto'. May
all the people be happy.
The VHP is being blamed for what
has happened in Ahmedabad. The atrocities were perpetrated in Ahmedabad
as a reaction to the horror in Godhra. But of course this reaction is wrong
- totally wrong. We must however note that it happens in our country all
the time. When Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by Godse, hundreds of Brahmins
in Maharashtra were killed. Brahmins - innocents who had nothing to do
with Gandhi's murder were butchered mercilessly and thousands of homes
put to the torch when Indira Gandhi was killed by a Sikh, some 3000 innocent
Sikhs in Delhi - many of them women and children - were killed. The mobs
who did this were led by Congress leaders. That was a bloody, dreadful,
heinous crime.
Instead of bringing to justice the
real perpetrators of the massacre in Godhra, Muslims in Ahmedabad were
killed. This is nothing but perverted justice. The victims of communal
violence in Ahmedabad had nothing to do with the burning horror in Godhra.
It would have been in the fitness of things if the killers in Ahmedabad
had gone to Godhra and executed all those who were responsible for burning
VHP folks there. All those who took part in the barbaric act in Godhra
deserve to be hanged.
What I am trying to make out is
that the person who actually commit the crime should be punished. For the
sins committed by them, persons belonging to their party or religion should
not be held responsible.
A section of the English press is
making out that the VHP, Bajrang Dal and other organisations of Hindus
are fanatics. They even are trying to make out they are anti-national and
terrorists. The journalists belonging to this brigade are prejudiced. Maybe
they have an agenda of their own. They ridicule the native statements of
Ram sevaks, they say this love is some distant past. If a small bamboo
hut, described as a church, is brought down, they scream Christians are
under attack. You can see it clearly - the biased view.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is a much-maligned,
much-misunderstood organisation. I was amused by the preventive steps taken
in Mumbai - on the day of the puja in Ayodhya. The VHP agreed to respect
the verdict of the apex court and held the puja away from the prohibited
territory. And in Mumbai 8000 arrests were made, processions were banned
and heavy security bandobast made. And all this because of a wrong perception
of what the VHP stands for. The VHP works for 'vishwa kalyan' and 'vishwa
shanti'. It has no plans obviously to disturb the peace in Mumbai or anywhere
else.
All that the VHP asks for is space
- to do its own thing. The VHP bashing is going on in the country. Hindu
bashing. There is a method in the madness. Involved here is politics in
a big way.
Communal violence
The Congress, at the slightest provocation,
hits out at the VHP - a supporter of the BJP. The BJP is the political
wing of the sangh parivar. The VHP is supposed to represent the higher
castes of Hindus - Brahmins particularly. The Congress and regionally powerful
parties like the SP and BSP are trying to wean away the lower castes -
the Dalits the Scheduled Castes etc. And of course the Muslims too. The
BJP has never been anti-Muslim and in all the states where it rules, there
has been no communal violence. The minorities are safe in BJP ruled states.
The opposition parties like the Congress have by bracketing the VHP with
the BJP are trying to make out that the latter is a communal organisation.
Paint the VHP as saffron as possible and make out it is extremist organisation.
That is the power game being played against the VHP.
Babar and other terrorists from
Turkey and other places in Central and Western Asia have destroyed thousands
of temples in India. And why should Muslims who were all Hindus until a
few centuries ago are more keen about honouring a cruel foreigner like
Babar than their great and noble ancestor King Rama who belonged to the
splendid Aryan race? Why do Muslims want to forget their roots, their Aryan
heritage. If they think along these lines, they will not have any objection
to the Rama temple at Ayodhya.
And this small big gesture will
build rapport between Muslims and Hindus and bring permanent peace.