Modi makes a move in communal politics

I have reasons to believe that Atal Behari Vajpayee, when he was Prime Minister, wanted to dismiss Narendra Modi and had planned to do so after his visit to Ahmedabad. But there was so much pressure on him from his colleagues and the RSS that he changed his mind. He should have gone ahead with his plan because Modi's hand was too visible behind the pogrom to be missed.

Modi's doings have once again come in the open after a weekly's sting operation that was shown on TV screens. Modi's foot soldiers were seen boasting about carrying out the killings with state support. "Execution squads were formed, composed of the dedicated cadre of Hindu. organisations - the Vishwa Hindu Parisahad, the Rashtriaya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Bajrang Dal, the Kisan Sangh, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Bhartiya Janata Party.

Modi was so nervous over the disclosure that he had the TV channels relaying the confessions of his men banned. The Editors' Guild has rightly chastised Modi for violating press freedom. There is little that the central government can do because the process of state assembly election has begun.

Yet the Manmohan Singh government will fail in its duty if Modi is left alone. I seldom agree with Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. But he is justified in calling for Modi's arrest. Indeed, it is a challenging task which timid rulers in Delhi cannot undertake.

In fact, the ball is now in the court of people in Gujarat. They are on test. They should not allow Modi to convert his communal approach into self-respect for the Gujaratis. Those killed were also Gujaratis. When he is accused of planning and executing all that happened in the wake of Godhra train burning, he plays on the sentiment that the Gujaratis are run down. Thus he has got away with murders.

Entire India has only admiration for the Gujaratis for the rapid economic development and for the 24 percent growth rate. But for them, the country would not have won laurels in the world as it has done. They are hardworking, determined and innovative. They do not deserve a chief minister who manipulates his reputation at their cost and polarises society.

Modi even makes a mockery of Mahatma Gandhi's ideals of pluralism. Modi's style of functioning is authoritarian and parochial. So much so that a revered state leader like Keshubhai Patel has felt so humiliated that he has kept distance from the BJP, the party he has served for decades, because it has put up Modi as next chief minister.

Keshubhai's disgust is an example before the Gujaratis. He is still with the BJP and has never entertained the idea of going near the Congress. But he is determined to defeat Modi. Keshubhai is a true Gujarati. He has said many a time that his conviction is that the state will be doomed if Modi becomes its chief minister once again.

Modi's return will be considered an endorsement by the Gujaratis of the part he played in killing the Gujaratis and in converting the well-spread BJP organization into a Modi coterie, forcing old members to quit or stay distant. That is the reason why even the RSS, the BJP's mentor, has washed its hands off Gujarat.

Had the Nanavati Shah Commission which was set up to ascertain the truth submitted its report by this time Modi's role would have probably been exposed. An authentic account of Modi's role would have been available. But the inquiry committee is going on and on for the past five years. Are the judges lengthening their tenure?

This is turning out to be just another Liberhan Inquiry Committee which was set up in the wake of the Babri masjid demolition in 1992. The committee had scores of extensions and it had not submitted even an interim report in the last 15 years. I think that the Chief Justice of India should look into the working of such inquiry committees because they bring a bad name to the judiciary.

There should be a time frame and no inquiry committee should last beyond three years. Modi's defence by the BJP spokesman does not surprise me. The party, because of L.K. Advani's increasing influence and Vajpayee's waning say because of his ill-health, is most vociferously communal in projecting Modi. The BJP's thinking is that if it loses the assembly election in Gujarat, it would lose in the general election. It might even otherwise do if it continues to back up Modi.

But whatever the party's consideration should it abuse Prime Minister Manmohan Singh? He is not my hero but he has led the country in the last three and a half years fairly well, resisting the pressure of his coalition partners on the one hand and the dictation of party president Sonia Gandhi on the other. The BJP has no business to call Manmohan Singh "sad" or "weak" prime minister for his failing of not being a political animal.

Vajpayee, trained in politics for decades, kept his allies in good humour. His coalition partners also went up to a point. They never threatened his government as the Left does every third day. Vajpayee's coalition partners also enjoyed power and did not want to lose it. The Left, particularly the CPI (M), also has the vicarious satisfaction of ruling but feeds itself on the cheap popularity which it earns by giving threats to the government. It does not come as a surprise that when it is the question of exploiting its position, there is little difference between the BJP and the Left.

Ideologically, they are different but in working none of them tolerates dissent. Running down Manmohan Singh does not make news because he has himself stopped asserting or articulating his point of view. Once in a while he says something which gives the impression that he is his own master. But he dutifully carries out what emanates from the Sonia Gandhi quarters. He did not have to say that Rahul Gandhi, Sonia's son, was India's future. What Sonia Gandhi is doing to sell her son, first to America and then to China, is more than enough. What happens to India is another matter.

I am worried over the forthcoming discussion in parliament on the nuclear deal. Both the BJP and the Left would be making more or less the same points while opposing the deal. I hope that in the process a situation does not develop where the Manmohan Singh government falls. It would be a tragicomedy.

(The writer is a veteran Indian journalist and diplomat. He was also one-time Rajya Sabha member)