First, there appeared a signal to go ahead, a camouflaged invitation to Government servants to join the RSS in Gujarat. Now there is a telling pause - time to allow the reality to sink in before the agenda is once again taken up, perhaps with even greater force and enthusiasm.

The day this agenda succeeds, the minorities will be reduced to the status of second class citizens. The message: "Toe the line or live in fear" will be broadcast loud and clear, which could well lead to the mushrooming of a whole new set of reactionaries who could take to terrorism.

Such a development could spark off a chain reaction seriously detrimental to national interest. The very security of our citizens, who would be left at the mercy of RSS-oriented Government servants, could get endangered. Who would trust a superintendent of police or a district collector or even. a Government doctor, who visits the shakhas in the morning, during communal disturbances?

The partisan role played by the supposedly secular civil servants is shocking. And when they have the option of being RSS "servants" too, one can well imagine the havoc they have the potential to create. Visualise a situation wherein the administration itself becomes communal. Not only will it affect the chain of command, there remains this grim possibility of recalcitrant civil servants unprepared. to carry out orders. The frustrated elements, pushed to the wall, would obviously react ...

Members of the minority community have still not recovered from the effocts of the demolition of the Babari Masjid ...

Till now, people were being alienated by the communal elements in a guarded, camouflaged way. But once such a ... rule is brought into force or given wider legitimacy, whatever chances that peace and brotherhood have had till now too will diminish. All this will be done very smoothly, like one of those bloodless coups. Nothing very drastic yet very systematic. (Source: The Pioneer, 4 April, 2000)