HVK Archives: Editorials on RSS ban and its removal
Editorials on RSS ban and its removal - Times of India -Editorial
Posted By ashok (ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in)
12 December 1995
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This is being sent to given an idea of the bankruptcy of
intellectualism in the media.
Title : Means To An end
Publication : Times of India -Editorial
Date : December 12, 1995
Given the communal frenzy in which the country finds
itself, it was inevitable that the arrests of some of the
leaders of the sangh pariwar would be followed by the ban
on communal organisations. The time taken by the Centre
to impose it was evidently not the result of feet-
dragging as was initially suspected out of the need to
plug any legal loopholes. Although arrests and bans
militate against the country's democratic tradition,
there was apparently no alternative in the present
instance because of the threats to political order posed
by organisations like the R.S.S the V.H.P the Bajarang
Dal and the Islamic Sevak Sangh. The Jamaat-e-Islami's
fundamentalist policies also meant that it could not
expose the provisions of the Unlawful Activities
(Presentation) Act at a time when some of the worst
noting since partition is taking place all over the
country. The need to take such a stern step was also
necessary to restore confidence among the people,
especially when the Centre had palpably failed to prevent
Sunday's vandalism in Ayodhya, a grievous laps regardless
of attenuating circumstances. Now that the authority of
the state has come down so heavily on those responsible
for lighting the communal fuse, the message has gone out
loud and clear that the Centre will leave no stone
unturned to ensure that nobody can hold the country to
ransom.
It has to be remembered that the latest steps are only
the means to an end. It is necessary to use this
opportunity to reaffirm the parameters writhing which the
political parties and their allied organisations will
have to function. The Prime Minister's television
interview gave some indications in this regard for as he
said, the ``country will go to pieces if we leave the
path of secularism.'' The arrests and the bans are meant
only to emphasise the point that no one will be allowed
to defy the constitutional order. The corollary to this
is that there must also be faith in that order, a
commitment which the All-India Babri Masjid Action
Committee has violated by its outrageous decision to seek
U.N. intervention in the Ayodhya dispute. It is clear
enough that implementing the prohibitory orders will not
be easy in such an atmosphere of defiance and lack of
faith. The Centre may also face additional problems in
the BJP ruled states. Even otherwise, the enormous
difficulties of enforcing the ban should not be
overlooked, especially where organisations with an
extensive network (and also currently in an upbeat mood)
are involved. Notwithstanding such difficulties, the
latest measures are at least likely to ensure that
mischief-mongers will be aware of the risks they now run.
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Title: Yet Another Rebuff
Publication: Times of India - Editorial
Date: June 7, 1993.
In quashing the ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
and the Bajrang Dal, the P. K. Bahri tribunal has made
the Narasimha Rao government eat crow. The rebuff is no
way mitigated by the tribunal's decision to uphold the
ban on the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. In fact the Allahabad
High Court recently ruled against the ban imposed on the
RSS after the demolition of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya
on December 6, 1992. Since that ruling had already
exposed the Union government's shoddy homework. The
tribunal's final verdict was a foregone conclusion.
Admittedly the ban on these organisations was a knee-jeck
response of a panicks government that suddenly found
itself confronted with the enormity of its political
miscalations. Development within the ruling party also
dicated that the Prime Minister be seen as doing
something firm and decisive against the RSS-VHP-BJP
combine. But once that moment passed, the sence of
urgency too dissipated, so much go that there were
indications that the government did not have its hear in
arguing its case before the tribunal. It will be now
entirely graceless for the government to appeal against
the tribunal's verdict even if the Supreme Court is
inclined to entertain such a request. Not unexpectedly,
the Hindutva movement. A re-charged BJP has already
demanded that its dismissed governments in at least three
states be reinstated, even before the Supreme Court has a
chance to pronounce on the legality of the dismissal of
its ministers in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal
Pradesh.
The Bahri tribunal's verdict is in essence yet another
rebuff to leaders who believe that political battles can
be won by taking recourse to government had deliberately
sought to use the judiciary to get the better of its
Ayohya protagonists, without giving much though to the
damage that such involvement in bitter and intractable
religious disputes that such involvement in bitter and
intractable religious disputes would do to the
judiciary's efficacy and legitimacy. This too-clever-by-
half strategy resulted in the tragedy of December 6. The
latest humiliation of the Congress can be turned to some
advantage only if the ruling party learns that its sundry
leaders cannot wantonly prod one another to misuse
constitutional powers while settling internal disputes.
The tribunal's verdict should now restore the Ayodhya
dispute to the political arena where it rightly belongs.
At the same time the tribunal's ruling on the correctness
of the ban on the VHP is a warning to those like Sadhvi
Ritambhra who are disinclined to accept moderation and
restraint in their public pronouncements. Excesses of one
kind will inevitably invite excesses of another kind.
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