...Mr. Sathe has admitted ...that the Supreme Court verdict in the Shah Bano case was overturned by the Congress(I) to “make every Muslim happy” and then “we allowed shi-lanyas, we allowed opening of the lock of the temple” to make the Hindus happy....
...Mr. Sathe... has carried these disclosures to their logical conclusion by urging the Muslims to forsake their claims on the Babri Masjid. This virtual endorsement of the BJP’s provocative stand... merely prescribed a procedure which is the logical culmination of steps like opening the lock and allowing the ‘shilanyas’ ceremony. It may not make the Muslims happy, but that is why he wants them to give up their rights on their own and in a gracious manner.
Nor is the suggestion all that out of tune with the Congress (I)’s latest stand, for the Rajiv Gandhi formula, too, has carefully avoided any firm opposition to the destruction of the mosque (which is the stand of all secular parties) and has kept the road open for implementing the BJP’s demolition plan if it can be proved that a temple was indeed pulled down to build the mosque. Already, various groups have started advancing such ‘proofs’ and it is clear that once a retreat is ordered on this score, there will be no way to save the structure... Such an abject surrender to the Hindu revivalists will not help the Congress(I) in the least, but only boost the BJP’s prospects.
A statement on communalism issued by four Congress MPs last Monday provides an ominous pointer to the discontent in the ranks of their party....
...The debate raging in the (Congress) Party on the most effective strategy to combat the Hindutva forces unleashed by ...Advani has come to a boil. One section, convinced that the Muslims will not vote for the...
Congress en masse, has sought to dilute the Nehruvian brand of secularism and clamoured for a pro-Hindu tilt in the Ayodhya controversy. Another section has argued just as forcefully that any such tilt would in fact mean jettisoning the time-tested concept of secularism which the party has defined in terms of the responsibility of the State to uphold the rights of all citizens irrespective of their religious beliefs. Caught in the cross-fire Mr. Gandhi has been unable or unwilling to take sides and it is this procrastination which has driven his supporters to air their grievance in public. Their statement, however, appears not to take into sufficient account the complex dilemma Mr. Gandhi faces. He cannot be pushed into choosing between ‘soft Hinduism’ and ‘hard secularism’. For, if the former is a milder variant of a poisonous notion the latter... is no longer perceived to be an elixir. To impart topical relevance to secularism the Congress would need to draw on the eclectic, humanist and egalitarian traditions of all faiths practised in the country the better to emphasise that it is responsive to the ethical and spiritual concerns of our people...
Chandra Swami on Communalism
…Hindu means one who keeps away from violence, one who is generous. Everyone who lives on the soil of Hindustan is a Hindu, therefore, I have said that the minorities should not become communal. When the minorities become communal and turn violent, the majority community has no option but to retaliate. The result of such a clash is disastrous. The consequences are borne by the minorities. That is why my appeal to the minorities to give up communalism and not to drive the majority community up the wall. Once that happens, there will be violence.