Chief
Election Commissioner Lyngdoh shines in India
Vajpayee Takes
Stand against Hindu Fundamentalists
Ranjit
Devraj
NEW
DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, considered
the moderate face in his pro-Hindu, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
has moved to defuse a confrontation brewing between fundamentalist
groups in western Gujarat state and the Election Commission, a
constitutional body.
The crisis
began after Chief Election Commissioner James Michael Lyngdoh
ordered a ban on religious processions in Gujarat state - the
scene of a pogrom against the minority Muslim community earlier
this year - in the run-up to state assembly elections scheduled
for Dec.12.
Lyngdoh, who has a reputation for toughness and fairness, earned
through the peaceful conduct of elections in the militancy-torn,
Muslim-majority state of Kashmir in September and October, has
described the situation in Gujarat as communally charged and ''nasty''.
On Thursday, leaders of the BJP and its affiliate, the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP) or World Hindu Forum, reacted by condemning
Lyngdoh as being ''anti-Hindu''. VHP leader Pravin Togadia announced
his determination to go ahead with a planned 'Vijay Yatra' or
victory procession on Sunday to ''create awareness'' among Hindus.
However, the BJP government in Gujarat led by chief minister Narendra
Modi came under pressure from the central government to ban the
procession and late Thursday, the state government announced compliance
with the order. ''The government of Gujarat has done the right
thing by acting as per the directive of the Election Commission
to prohibit religious processions in the state ahead of Assembly
elections on December 12,'' Vajpayee said in
a statement.
Vajpayee also appealed to ''all organisations to honour this directive
issued by the constitutional authority and help the state administration
in discharging its duty.'' However,
the VHP has announced it would disregard the Election Commission's
ban and carry out the procession.
Vajpayee disagreed with senior leaders of his party who had criticised
Lyngdoh and the Election Commission for its decision, saying that
''given the circumstances in Gujarat, the ban order is valid''.
In late February, a train carrying Hindu pilgrims returning from
the temple town of Ayodhya in northern Uttar Pradesh state was
set ablaze near Godhra station in Gujarat resulting in the deaths
of 30 passengers.
The reprisals were swift and unforgiving. Hindu mobs led by the
VHP tore down Muslim homes and establishments killing at least
2,000 people and rendering more than 150,000 others homeless in
the worst communal violence in the country since the 1947 partition
of British India into Muslim Pakistan and secular but Hindu-majority
India.
Seeing in the anti-Muslim riots an opportunity to revive its sagging
popularity, the BJP government in Gujarat encouraged and did nothing
to stop the violence. It came under severe condemnation by the
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), among other institutions
and voluntary agencies.
Vajpayee said Friday that neither the Godhra incidents nor the
violent reprisals that followed could be election issues. ''Surely
there are better issues over which to fight the elections,'' the
prime minister said. What
was important, he said, was that the people of Gujarat be given
a
chance to elect a government of their choice, one that they believed
would help improve their lives rather than vitiate the atmosphere
further.
This is the first time that Vajpayee, in the nearly four years
since he first became prime minister, has taken a firm stand against
Hindu fundamentalist groups such as the VHP, which have provided
the muscle and the ideology for his party. He has two more years
to serve in his current term of office.
On Thursday, BJP president Venkiah Naidu called the Election Commission's
ban on religious processions ''inappropriate'' and said it went
against democratic norms under which ''people have a right to
free speech and movement''.
But the BJP itself is only the leader of a 21-party coalition
called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that rules India's
federal government. The coalition consists of regional parties
that are not comfortable with the pro-Hindu stance of the BJP
and rely on Vajpayee's leadership to ensure that constitutional
limits were adhered to.
It was the VHP that spearheaded a movement to whip up majority
Hindu sentiments over a campaign to demolish the Babri Masjid.
This is a 16th century mosque built by Muslim invaders in the
Ayodhya town of northern Uttar Pradesh state, allegedly over the
site of an older Hindu temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu
warrior deity Rama.
After the massive tri-domed structure was torn down in on Dec.
6 1992, the political fortunes of the BJP, until then an obscure
party, improved dramatically. This enabled it to displace the
115-year-old Congress party, which swears by secularism, as India's
leading political entity.
Vajpayee, who benefited from the essentially anti-Islamic campaign
led by the VHP, was to say later that he was ashamed that the
Babri Masjid had been torn down.
The VHP has now called for the observance of Dec. 6, which falls
six days before election day in Gujarat, as ''victory day'' marking
the tenth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
The leader of the VHP, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, said plans have
been drawn up to ''raise awareness'' among Hindus on the importance
of the anniversary through a series of religious processions culminating
on Dec. 6 at the textile city of Ahmedabad.
According to Kishore, who sports the flowing beards and hair of
a Hindu holy man, the elections in Gujarat would be a test case
for the future of the pro-Hindu movement led by the VHP across
northern India over the last decade.
The loss of Gujarat in assembly elections could prove a grievous
blow to the BJP since it is the last major state left that the
party directly rules.
