The Union Home Minister ... he also issues certificates of good conduct to others. One day he will give a clean chit to Sushma Swaraj; the next day, he testifies to the corporate goodness of Reliance Industries. Now he certifies the lumpens who provide cadre for the Bajrang Dal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other marauding outfits of the Sangh Parivar. There is no need to investigate the presumed culpability of these organisations in the murderous attacks on Christian organisations, says the Home Minister. Because, says Advani, "I have known these organisations. They have no criminal record." As if the Union Home Ministry has already issued a laminated identity card to each of the Bajrang Dal goons and. Advani can satisfy himself after checking the master computerised membership list.
By issuing this certificate of good, moral conduct to the Bajrang Dal and the VHP, Advani has upped the ante for the Prime Minister Vajpayee. If Vajpayee has welcomed with alacrity the decision of the National Human Rights Commission to send an investigating team to Orissa, the Home Minister says he has "a different view" but which, for now, he would not disclose. The Prime Minister can hang his head in shame that a man tending to leprosy patients for 30 years is burned as if at the stake, but the Home Minister prefers to take a holistic view of the anti-Christian violence. .
What the Home Minister has not realised is that his utterances have a cascading effect. Any good administrator who aspires to govern this vast country with a semblance of fairness and sensitivity has to understand the importance of his own statements. By issuing testimonials to the Bajrang Dal, Advani has not only indulged the lunatic elements of the Sangh Parivar but also sent a message across to every sub-inspector of police in the country: the Bajrang Dal activist, however lumpen and however goonish, is to be given the benefit of the doubt. When a Union Home Minister hands out testimonials to any organisation, every analyst in the intelligence department across the country would be wary of putting down in black and white the potential for mischief from that source. And even if such inputs from below are made available, the DGPs, the Home Secretaries and the Chief Secretaries would be very reluctant to report them to the political leaders ... Imagine the extent to which the IAS/ IPS brass can go when it comes to indulging a difficult customer like Advani.
Indeed, only a week ago his Ministry most mischievously and selectively released figures of foreign contributions for October-December 1998; Advani's Ministry says that "Rs. 14 crores (out of a total of Rs. 19.80 crores) was received by Christian organisations. The major donors were the U.S., Switzerland, Germany, the UK and Italy." No elaboration of "Christian organisations". The prejudiced minds are encouraged to equate each "Christian organisation" with the proselytising missionary and to conclude that the money received from abroad was the cause for all the "backlash". In the past too, the Central Government moved against over-zealous and over-endowed missionary groups, but never was routine administrative vigilance invested with conspiratorial significance.
The BJP establishment and others in the Sangh Parivar have already taken the hint from Advani's Ministry. The line of offence is to absolve the Hindutva forces of any role in or responsibility for the attacks against the Christians; instead, these are to be depicted as part of an international "design", aimed at destabilising the BJP-led Government for having the audacity to conduct nuclear tests in May 1998. Admirers and apologists for Advani in the print and television media have already done their bit to justify the new xenophobic catechism.
The Advani offensive will eventually force Vajpayee to go on the backfoot. Any attempt by Vajpayee to retreat from the "let us debate conversions" position would be seen as a betrayal of the most cherished values and ideas of the Sangh Parivar - that too for the sake of plaudits from the finicky English-speaking liberals ...
No one can be sure whether the Prime Minister realises that his "let us debate the conversions" call has emboldened those within the Sangh Parivar who want to settle a few scores with the minorities. After all, it was Mr. Advani who first suggested that the Christians should have a dialogue with the VHP. In issue after issue, The Organiser, RSS mouthpiece, threatens the Christians to mend their ways and to engage in a so-called Shastrartha (reasoned dialogue). But the offer of dialogue is conditional: "If the Christian missionaries eschew unethical methods of conversions so far practised, a dialogue is certainly in order. But they should sincerely abandon their trinity of commerce, colonisation and coercive conversion," argues The Organiser.
Even if it is conceded that a few church groups aggressively ply their wares, it cannot be accepted that a tribal who converts to Christianity ipso facto dilutes his patriotism and that the new convert's nationalism becomes suspect. Religious harmony and sensitivity to the majority's sensibilities are morally defensible goods but this equation between patriotism and remaining within the fold of Hinduism (or any of the numerous tribal faiths) is a negation of the bonds of citizenship and a disquieting demand for a conforming religious uniformity.
Advani has been less than mindful of his obligations as the Union Home Minister, under oath to provide safety and security to all citizens. (Source: The Hindu, 27 January, 1999)
