Critical Letters in Times of India – I

Malkani's article ... is typical of Hindutva brigade's familiar rhetoric, only it is even more confused. He starts by citing VHP demand for righting historic wrongs, obviously by demolishing various mosques. Then he contends that the Sangh Parivar never wanted the Masjid to be pulled down in this way, an obvious falsehood; the world has not yet forgotten the Tandava dance of Murli Manohar Joshi and others at the site ... In between he suggests that some agents provocateurs from Pakistan might have done that! Alternatively, "members of Rao's kitchen cabinet were involved ...

He ends by saying: 'Out of evil cometh good". I am happy that he recognises that the act of demolition was an evil act; that is why perhaps he is citing so many red herrings for an act of vandalism openly and boldly committed by members of the Sangh Parivar.                                                                                                             - Saral Jhingran, 28 October, 1997

                                                            II

Malkani's defence of the demolition of the Babari Masjid (October 13) is a series of disjointed protestations. Malkani draws parallels with the rebuilding of the Somnath temple with cabinet approval. Then why didn't the Sangh Parivar wait for a similar concensus to be arrived in the case of Ayodhya? Historical correction, and that too after centuries, calls for patience. But the VHP, which raised the issue first in 1987 couldn't wait more than five years. Since electoral mileage was the Sangh Parivar's aim, it raised a ruckus over the Babari Masjid. It is a pity that Malkani had to quote Nirad C. Chaudhari – a self-proclaimed Englishman - and V.S. Naipaul (who has never lived in India).

Modern India cannot shut its eyes to the sentiments of different religious and ethnic groups. Malkani proudly claims that the demolition solved the communal issue once and for all. But he fails to acknowledge that the riots in December, 1992 - January 1993 and the serial bomb blasts in March 1993 were indeed a fallout of the December 6, 1992 act. That no communal carnage has followed since then is not because the communal problem has been solved, but because the BJP and its allies have wrested power in a number of states ... Faced with an identity crisis and in a bid to pamper its vote-bank, the BJP has fallen back on its prime vote-catching issue of yesteryear.                                                                                               -S. Sinha, 8 November, 1997

                                                            III

Malkani should be thanked for inadvertently baring the BJP's perversely selective sensitivity towards national issues. Not a scratch is caused on their 'tender' psyche by the British rulers, such as the shooting at Jallianwala Bagh, the Bengal Famine in which lakhs died of starvation, the massacre of hundreds during the naval mutiny, millions dying and getting uprooted at the time of Partition etc. For the BIP, the history of India appears to have come to a half after the departure of the last Mughal Emperor. It is the desecration of temples during Muslim rule much earlier that deeply wounds their psyche and the demolition of a dilapidated mosque built centuries ago restores it. If they had been really sincere and had firm faith in their methodology, they would have also called for the demolition of monuments of the imperialist British rule, such as the Viceregal Lodge (now Rashtrapati Bhavan), the Victoria memorial or the Gateway of India.

In reality, the so-called wound to the psyche is a way to fan communal passions. This is the way the BJP obtains political mileage in an attempt to ultimately achieve power at the centre.                                                                     - V.S. Mokashi, 8 November, 1997