News

It is Gujarat again. Hindutva, chauvinism and arrogance continue to rage in the state. And there is no let-up in denouncing the country's ethos of pluralism where Muslims, Christians and Sikhs have the same rights as the 80 percent Hindus have. It is as if the Gujaratis believe that they are Gujaratis first and Indians later. They have to prove to the contrary because a dangerous cult, that of Gujaratism, appears to be taking shape.

A similar phenomenon has taken place in other countries where authoritarian regimes have been in power. Unfortunately, the Gujaratis are going the same way. People are changing in their outlook.

The top man, Chief Minister Narendra Modi, is responsible for making them feel different. But ultimately they will suffer. In the First Schedule, of the constitution, Gujarat is listed fourth alphabetically. The nation expects the state to respect the rule of law as other constituents of the Union do. But events prove again and again that Gujarat has its own norms. That is the reason why the Supreme Court came down heavily on the state's rulers.
A case can be built for the Centre's takeover of the state administration. But no liberal would like such an abominable step.

After Gujarat came into existence following the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960, the state has made big strides in the economic field. Regrettably, Gujarat has got its values debased, although it has had the distinction of responding to the call by Gandhian Jaya Prakash Narayan and forcing a corrupt government to quit. Needless to add Mahatma Gandhi was born in the state.
Gujarat's image was not bad till the present chief minister came to power some six years ago. No doubt, the state was prone to communal clashes but both Hindus and Muslims had developed normal relations.

Although the two communities lived mostly in the segregated habitations, they were together in business, trade and industry or other economic pursuits. Between the two, there was an undefined distance which widened after partition. Yet, the state did not lose its bohemian atmosphere that gave each one its space as well.

It looks as if the BJP which had replaced the Congress in the late nineties decided to experiment with pure Hindutva on the ground. Since the party also ruled at the Centre, Gujarat did not fear any counteraction from New Delhi. Modi, a staunch RSS member, then the party's general secretary at Delhi, was sent to Ahmedabad to take the BJP agenda further. The party's real purpose was to use Gujarat as a laboratory to experiment with its thesis that Hindus and Muslims should stay apart so that at the time of election the Hindus assert themselves as Hindus and vote for the BJP.

The party polarised the society and stoked the fire of parochialism on one issue or the other so that the Gujarati sentiment and the Hindu chauvinism would become synonymous. If Hindus could be fired with hatred for Muslims and constantly chided that Pakistan, the next-door country, came into existence on the basis of religion, the foundation of Hindu rashtra might well be laid. This was Modi's assignment and this is what he has done to the Gujaratis. It speaks volumes about his single-mindedness but shows the Gujaratis, who have liberal traditions, in poor light.

It is now a proven fact that the riots in Gujarat would have taken place in 2002 even if there had been no Godhara. Only a few have withstood strong winds of communalism. They have rightly said in a letter to the state government: "Here was a clear and clever combination of the official and unofficial with the implicit idea of keeping the communal divide burning and perpetuating the polarisation that has engulfed Gujarat from year 2002 onwards."

In the name of Hindu Gujarati chauvinism, Modi has created an apparatus which he can use to kill and destroy. He recently did in Vadodara. It is a Frankenstein who will one day devour Gujarat Hindus as well because hatred knows no bounds. Until that happens, Modi will continue to command and it will be carried out, whether it is ethnic cleansing, demolition of the 400-year-old Dargha Hazrat Rashiuddin or the screening of Aamir Khan movies.

I recall once talking to some Gujarati intellectuals at Ahmedabad. They said that the Narmada was their "Kashmir." The Narmada is a national project, not that of Gujarat alone. But that apart, Aamir Khan or other conscientious objectors are correct in saying that the dam's height should not be raised till the uprooted are rehabilitated. The Narmada Tribunal Award and the Supreme Court have pronounced the same judgment.

In fact, they have laid down that the resettlement should take place six months before people are moved to other sites. Strange, Modi should be able to deter New Delhi and the Supreme Court from implementing its earlier decisions. Modi is the BJP's role model. Whether people outside Gujarat would follow him or not remains to be seen. The results in election in the five states -- Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry -- indicate that people follow secular ethos.

But the Hindutva forces are far from dejected. That is the reason why Gujarat is not allowed to rest. Another state where the ground is being prepared on the Gujarat model is Rajasthan. The Pope's observation that religious intolerance in India is increasing was about Rajasthan. This is an exaggerated statement. But as a warning, it has some justification. The manner in which painter M.F. Husain has been harassed and hounded says all.

The exhibition of his paintings at London had to be cancelled because of the objections by a fanatic fringe of Hindus. Not many have come to his rescue. An academic Gujarati, Meghnad Desai, has rightly bemoaned how Husain could not show his work. "The objection to Husain is not the so-called obscenity of his paintings. It is because he is a Muslim and hence, the Hindu fundamentalist group denies (him) his artistic freedom to take Hindu gods and goddesses as his theme," says Desai. This is ominous.