Look Delhi, Aim Rome

The timing of the NHRC intervention was inopportune for the VHP and the Dal. It came at a time when PM A.B. Vajpayee was trying to convince the Vatican that the attacks on the Christians were "isolated incidents". But even as he was trying to sell this line, news of the Bajrang Dal conducting a weapons training camp at Ayodhya poured in. Attorney general Soli Sorabjee's suggestion that such elements should be "locked up in jail or in a lunatic asylum" made things worse for the Hindutva top brass. A furious VHP-Bajrang Dal leadership, backed by the RSS, swung into action and ganged up to deny all allegations and even threatened the media with legal action. Their take was that the air guns used at the Bajrang Dal camps were like the ones "used in melas for shooting balloons". Surendra Jain, all-India convenor of the Bajrang Dal, told Outlook: "We give training to improve the aim so that the target is hit correctly. If you can aim, you can shoot the target as well."

The 200-odd Dal activists collected at Karsevakpuram in Ayodhya, the venue of the camp, were surely at no village fair. The target practice combined with military drill was serious business. The activists were up at 4 am and put through a rigorous physical routine punctuated by religious discourses and ultra-nationalistic rhetoric. The net result was that all those who attended the camp were willing to go out and fight. Says an emotionally-charged Chandra Prakash Rastogi, one of the participants: "LTTE chief Prabhakaran is my ideal. I am gearing up to finish off anti-Hindu forces in my country."

The morning air at the camp resounded daily with slogans tailor-made to arouse Hindu passions. "We're not three but three thousand/We will destroy every Muslim shrine," went one slogan. "Where is the question of giving up Kashmir/We will win back Lahore and Karachi," went another.

Dal leaders are categoric when they blame the Christian lobby and some "committed journalists" for the anti-Hindutva campaign. Says Rajendra 'Pankaj', all-India organising secretary of the Bajrang Dal: "We are opposed to the Christians on the issue of conversion. We don't oppose their style of prayer. As far as giving arms training to our cadre is concerned, we believe that it is not the weapon that fights, it is sheer will that fights." Pankaj theorises that whenever the Bajrang Dal talks about struggle or war, it means the war of ideologies.

But the Dal's own track record belies Pankaj's claim that the Dal does not indulge in violence. It's depicted as an organisation dreaded by "anti-Hindu forces" in the literature published by the VHP. A VHP booklet about the Dal notes: "For the Hindus, it (Bajrang Dal) has become synonymous with security and for anti-Hindus it's become a terror." As an example, the same booklet further boasts that police cases were registered against 26 Dal activists when they effectively vandalised painter M.F. Husain's studio in Ahmedabad.

The Dal came into being in 1984 with the mobilisation of the urban lumpen, giving the Ram Janmabhoomi movement a militant slant. Saffron-headband-wearing, slogan-shouting youngsters were indoctrinated under the ideological supervision of the VHP and RSS. According to the VHP, "the credibility of the Dal increased manifold with the demolition of the Babri structure".

Soon, the Dal swelled to have a presence in 544 districts. In all, it has 7,082 units countrywide. Headed by an all-India convenor, overall supervision is in the hands of one of the VHP's joint general secretaries. The Dal's cadres largely comes from the lower middle-class and urban slums. The organisation functions through shakhas where youths are indoctrinated to fight for Hindutva. The initiated are asked to take an oath and to dedicate themselves to the cause. Once they take the plunge, they're given a sharpened trishul. Many such Bajrangis saw the fulfilment of their dream with the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid.

But with this demolition there was a slow change in tack. Post-1996, the Dal's focus of ire shifted towards Christians. This change was in keeping with RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar's thesis that India has three internal enemies-Muslims, Christians and Communists. The demolition of the Babri Masjid and the terror unleashed after was seen as sufficient enough to quieten the Muslims and since the Communists were already on the decline, the only remaining enemy was the Christian community. It was also thought that a sustained campaign against conversions would once again galvanise the Hindu community. This explains the increased violence in Gujarat, Andhra, Maharashtra and UP.

But Vinay Katiyar, founder-president of the Dal and now BJP MP, insists that the Dal never indulged in violence at any place. He told Outlook: "This is a planned conspiracy. The day the Vajpayee government came to power, its opponents couldn't find any other issue. So they have been attacking us. We have sought a cbi inquiry and I am sure that only Christian organisations will be held guilty." Katiyar feels the whole campaign is the brainchild of Sonia Gandhi. "I feel Sonia wants to expand her mass base by spreading such things. The whole society is against conversions. We are also against it. That doesn't mean we kill people." But Katiyar's statement goes starkly contrary to VHP joint general secretary Omkar Bhaway's candid admission that "we don't believe in Gandhiji's non-violence (see interview)".

But despite Vajpayee's assertion that the attacks on Christians were isolated acts, the abnormal growth of such incidents has raised many eyebrows. At least 12 such major incidents have taken place between February 15 and June 17 this year. Interestingly, the Sangh parivar is trying to project these incidents as a "popular protests of society" against the missionaries' activities. The saffron leadership knows the success of their campaign against the missionaries can be guaranteed only when it becomes a "popular issue" even with people outside the RSS fold. This explains the interest of the RSS-VHP-Bajrang Dal combine in washing their hands of the incidents of attacks on Christians. Interestingly, the RSS leadership has never been as prompt in condemning the attacks on the Christians as they were in denying their hand.

However, with world pressure mounting on the government, the BJP's begun to condemn the attacks. But they have absolved the VHP and the Dal of any involvement. Observes BJP vice-president Jana Krishnamurthy: "We condemn all such incidents and believe the guilty should be punished whatever their religion, motivation or political affiliation. But there is the sad development of a minority psychology in India-Azharuddin's claim that he was being victimised because he belongs to a minority community is a concrete example-which looks upon every incident or unfortunate attack as a conspiracy. If there is a conspiracy, it is to defame the Vajpayee regime and undermine the NDA government by forces inimical to India. As for the alleged involvement of the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and the BJP, these attacks are fomenting communal unrest and is not a new charge. I would like to ask those who make these accusations whether they can provide the name of one leader closely associated with these organisations who has ever been convicted on these charges."

This softness on the part of a friendly government is not without an apparent quid pro quo. Some kind of an understanding seems to have developed between the government and the Sangh outfits like the VHP on contentious issues. In a major development, those very VHP leaders who made prime minister Vajpayee the target of their personal attack till two years ago are now ready to put issues like Article 370 (in regard to Kashmir) on the backburner. In the last dharm sansad of the VHP in Ahmedabad two years ago, Acharya Giriraj Kishore expressed his unhappiness with the coalition government led by Vajpayee saying that "Hamaare sab mudde murde kar diye jaate hein (All our issues have been made non-issues)." But now he seems to have changed his mind. "For a greater cause, smaller issues can be sacrificed. Ram mandir can be constructed in two years instead of one year. Will you construct the Ram temple if the country is under attack? I think even the issue of Article 370 comes later when the issue of autonomous Jammu and Kashmir has come up. Farooq Abdullah says he would have become prime minister if Kashmir had gone with Pakistan. I say you go to Pakistan now," Kishore told Outlook.

With the secular and socialist constituents in the NDA tamed, this strategy of not confronting Vajpayee on key issues has allowed the Sangh parivar and its stormtroopers like the Dal to carry out their agenda without any severe opposition from the government. Even when Dal leaders issue overtly communal statements, Advani and Vajpayee end up sweeping it under the carpet. It is this tacit support which has made organisations like the Bajrang Dal so strident. And critics of the RSS say that this muscle-flexing will continue so long as it has ideological friends at the Centre.