SOCIETY
An almost fanatical frenzy gripped the city. The only difference being that these were not sustained by faith and hence could not be described as a miracle, and were openly menacing in their effect.
There is a rumor machinery that exists, one cannot say it has been created because of reports by those who witnessed partition and recall the role played by rumors in generating riots and bloodshed. This rumor machinery, grapevine is too mild a word to describe it, is used to perfection by fanatic forces like the RSS the large majority of communal riots in this country are preceded by days of wild rumors that are believed by the populace, and which increase tension to such a pitch that finally, any little move can trigger off a riot.
One has seen this over and over again, careful, precise use of rumors to generate hatred, insecurity followed by heinous violence. Violence which is justified as reaction, defense, protection.
In the most recent case, the effort is not to generate hatred but to consolidate a constituency through faith. No political party will be able to support the miraculous event that has taken place, not even the Congress openly. The only exception to this will be the RSS/BJP and VHP which have already endorsed the miracle. The RSS is an organization which works in the dark, in that its right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. The RSS hard-core are faceless entities who work for the cause and not to acclaim. It is a disciplined body which works to its own momentum and is following a set game-plan to capture power. Despite talk of corruption, criminalization of politics as other issues it is clear that Faith and Religion alone can be the plank that will make its political wing, the BJP, grow. And all that RSS strategy is based around this one-point programme. The BJP and VHP will have to make their hand open as public memory diminishes and the sceptics gain an upper hand. The BJP which has never hesitated from sounding retrogressive and primitive will now have to come out to defend the Faith, using Ganesh and Shiva as the rallying idols.
Primitive behavior assumes far more dangerous dimensions when political parties enter the arena and begin using religion for political ends.
It is precisely because of this that the Ganesh-milk episode assumes dimensions that should not be dismissed as a 'joke' by the cynics. It is anything but that. It is a careful exploitation of faith by those who have used the rumor machinery before to gauge the reach of their power, to size up the possible constituency, and to use this episode for fine-tuning their future strategy. The gullibility of the rich and the educated, the hysteria, the absurd over-reaction where all reason and rationality was discarded in the face of this supposed 'miracle' makes the future scenario frightening. The RSS and its ilk have correctly gauged that other political parties will find it difficult to challenge the miracle in the face of widespread belief, leaving them relatively free to inextricably intertwine their politics with the large constituency thus created. This is all the more reason why their game-plan must be exposed, and reason made to reassert itself as otherwise the consequences can be disastrous for secular India.
(Source: The Mainstream, 7 October, 1995)
