Communalism and Terrorism

Two Faces of the same Coin

ZNet, December 6, 2007

By Badri Raina

I write this on the fifteenth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Mosque by fascist hordes of the Sangh Parivar, consequent upon the pogrom set in motion by Advani’s infamous rath yatra.

Few events in the post-independence history of India have outfaced the founding principles of both the Freedom Movement and the Republic as decisively as that wanton and blood-thirsty challenge to the secular state. That was the day on which Mahatma Gandhi was buried ten fathoms deep, and when majoritarian terrorism came to be installed as the new operative version of ‘nationalism.’

It was also the day when the party that led the Freedom Movement lost its raison d¢ etre. Not to be forgotten that the then Congress prime minister twiddled his pout while fascist pickaxe took the mosque apart brick by brick in full glare of television crews in a daylong operation.

The coercive influence of that terror may be gauged from the fact that fifteen years to the good, the major political formations and institutional mechanisms of Indian democracy have failed to this day to bring a single culprit to book, either from a cloaked complicity or fear of consequence.

Nor indeed has the state found its way yet to implement the findings of the Justice Srikrishna Report on the communal terror that was unleashed by Hindutva forces in Mumbai subsequent to the demolition—a Report that has held the highest of the high among the saffronites guilty of marshalling the killings like ‘Generals’ in combat.

All that in stark contrast to the avidity with which judgements have been pronounced against Muslims deemed guilty of involvement in the bomb blasts that took place in Mumbai subsequent to the communal terror mentioned above.

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