COMMUNAL SITUATION

Asghar Ali Engineer on Communal Situation, 1996

Communalism and communal violence began to decline in the post-Babari Masjid demolition period. Ever since there have been very few riots.

Communalism too has in a way suffered a setback inasmuch as communal forces received no enthusiastic response from the common people. The Hindu communalists cannot dream of building up the Ram fervour, as they did during the late Eighties and early Nineties, at least for a number of years to come. The people suffered so intensely and its memory is so painful that they will shudder to support any such campaign. When the VHP launched the Kashi and Mathura temple movements in 1995, they were by and large ignored by the Hindus. Similarly the Muslim leaders who once launched the Shah Bano movement aggressively and formed the Babari Masjid Committee to arouse Muslim feelings are on the defensive or have been marginalised. The common people are thus able to breathe in peace at least for a while.

A decision which sent shockwaves throughout the country in 1996 was the winding up of the Srikrishna Commission, inquiring into the Bombay riots of December, 1992 and January 1993.

But fortunately, the Government back-tracked and reinstated the commission at the end of May 1996, following an appeal by the then Prime Minister Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee. This shows the Shiv Sena-BJP Government had no consistent policy in conducting an inquiry as it was afraid that its own leaders and activists would be exposed for their role.

May 1996 was quite momentous as it was during the month the BJP, the largest single party in the Lok Sabha after the general elections, was invited by the President to form the Government. The BJP did so in the hope that some regional parties would support its government and that it would last out. However, it failed to win the support of the regional parties and the government fell after lasting for merely 13 days.

It was quite significant that despite the BJP's assurances that it would not press its Hindutva agenda, it did not receive the support of any regional party.

But as soon as it went out of office, the BJP again announced that it would stick to its Hindutva agenda of building the Ram temple, etc. This betrays utter opportunism on its part. It renounced its Hindutva agenda only to remain in power and this clearly shows that the BJP presses this agenda to exploit its Hindu vote bank and not on account of its conviction:

In the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections held in October, 1996, the BJP got 177 seats, falling short of majority by 38 seats. However, it retained its polling percentage of about 33. Here also it could not attract members from other parties to form a Government. The stalemate continued for a couple of weeks and the Centre imposed President's Rule keeping the Assembly in suspended animation.

The BJP soft peddled its hard-core Hindutva agenda in the UP election too. Of course, the party was divided on the issue. Those with RSS and VHP connections were not happy with this strategy. The BJP promised a riot-free UP in its manifesto. For the BJP ally, Shiv Sena, also, the going has not been easy in Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena has been up against many problems of its own creation. The Kini murder case, in which some Shiv Sena bigwigs are allegedly involved, has tarnished its image. The Supreme Court later ordered a CBI inquiry and it has already begun. The Anna Hazare movement certainly posed a great challenge to the saffron government at the end of 1996. December 6 continues to excite passions on both sides of the communal divide. While the communal forces want to celebrate it as a national day, the secular forces treat it as a day of national shame. December 6, 1996 was the fourth anniversary of the demolition of the Babari Masjid. Muslims in major cities observed a bandh that day in their areas. The protest was peaceful except for an incident in Hyderabad.

In Parliament, the BJP shed its moderation mask and reverted to the aggressive Hindutva stance of the pre-Babari Masjid demolition period. Uma Bharti, BJP MP, went to the extent of demanding that December 6 be declared a national holiday as it was a day of achievement for the Hindus.

There has been a sharp decline in communal violence since the riots in Bombay, Surat and other towns in December 1992 and January, 1993. There is hardly any instance of a major outburst in this period. Few riots did occur but in almost all instances it was spontaneous outburst of violence on a smaller scale. Also, there was an attempt to control the violence speedily.

All these riots were mostly unplanned, unorganised and spontaneous outbursts of communal violence; most of them were brought under control speedily; the police role was qualitatively better, The Rapid Action Force or the Army units were immediately deployed; and the loss of life was under 10; mostly below five.

One does not see any political party provoking them. These riots were the result of local incidents, not of planned provocation. Organising riots does he seem to be a paying proposition, at least for the present.