Mob Rule

MIDNIGHT in Manoharpur, Orissa, on January 22 was like any other night. Till the screams from Timothy, Philip and their father Graham Stewart Staines as they were burnt alive in their station wagon woke up a nation. It patently failed, however, to jolt the bjp-led Union government out of its slumber. The crisis before the Vajpayee government is one of credibility. Of leadership. It seems increasingly to be led by the lunatic fringe, which nobody has the courage or political will to stop. Even as the obscurantism cartwheels dangerously out of control.

Some are piously penitent. The PM led them: My head hangs in shame. Madan Lal Khurana, in a damning indictment of what till the other day everybody thought was the lunatic fringe of the Sangh parivar, expressed his disgust at such acts committed in the name of Hindutva. The government ordered a judicial probe. That was all. The bjp's critics detect a definite shift - the mob having moved from the periphery, to the very heart of the party.

The leading lights of the bjp, including party president Kushabhau Thakre and home minister L.K. Advani, have condemned the violence, of course, but famously held a different view when it came to the ideology which has created this climate of intolerance. Not to mention the allegiance of the goons. Not such a surprise, really.

Remember Gujarat. Which was different. Intra-tribal, localised conflicts, said the bjp. And its affiliates in the Sangh. The sotto voce campaign: Christian missionaries, you know, they do convert simple, honest tribals using allurements. (Thakre's words, but they could be those of a legion of bjp leaders.) Very sad. But nothing the state could do. Also, state subject vs Central subject. Very complicated... Official bjp statement: The English language press is behaving irresponsibly. It exaggerates. After all, only some makeshift structures have been damaged. Nobody's been killed. Well, now somebody has.

Attacks on Christians, which began to acquire a frequency around the time the bjp settled into power at the Centre, seemed to reach their savage pitch in the aftermath of the assembly election debacle. Before the Staines episode came Gujarat - 28 churches were destroyed in a month - and Madhya Pradesh. Even hitherto peaceful Kerala didn't escape the fire. In November, some missionaries returning from a prayer meeting at Sultan Batteri in Wyanad were waylaid by a group of rss activists. They snatched their Bible, and beat them up. According to the local bishop, Yuhanan Mar Philoxinos, the provocation was that the tribal chief in the Adivasi colony had a photo of Jesus in his house. According to him, the Jacobite Church does not encourage conversions among tribals as the converted tribal would not be treated on par with the rest of the Syrian Christian community. Last week at Vadakara, also in Kerala, three members of the evangelical church of India, all aged between 18-20, were thrashed by Sangh zealots. Post Staines, a chapel was stoned in Bolangir, Orissa; and Bajrang Dal activists were allegedly in the thick of things in Allahabad, UP, and the hill regions - where visiting Kerala missionaries were beaten up.

THE ideological baggage the bjp carries has split the party and the Sangh. More pertinently, perhaps, the handful of moderates (most of whom are with him in government, save Bhairon Singh Shekhawat) are now being shown their place. The assertive PM is reduced to announcing a fast for communal harmony on January 30, the day Mahatma Gandhi was killed 51 years ago, to salvage his image.

Social ferment, misunderstanding between communities need to be removed, is the message. Thakre supports the PM - this is the way forward. Presumably, so do Advani and other bjp leaders. The irony of the PM acting as a sort of spiritual healer rather than the head of the executive elected to implement laws of the land in times of strife, is apparent. The visit to Dangs resulted in a call for a national debate on conversions; the Shiv Sena's vandalism was met with the home minister rushing to Mumbai on a peace mission, the Staines' killing has provided a day of fasting...

This relapse of Vajpayee into the kind of ineffectiveness which marked the first few months of his administration is not voluntary, say sympathisers. But the line of bjp hardliners (not to mention the Sangh) is clear - the Bajrang Dal, VHP, rss et al are above board and they have to be accepted as part of the body politic of the nation. They are legit. You may disagree with them but I have known them for 30 years. They are not criminal organisations, said Advani last week. Ditto Thakre (see interview). An attempt not only to make sure that the Sangh is united and becomes a part of the mainstream, but that the perceived dilution of the party's character due to its proximity to power does not become a long-term affliction.

BUT even the sophistry is lacking when it comes to the VHP and Bajrang Dal who, a couple of days after the Orissa killings, said variously that Staines pulled a gun on his attackers and the area where he works is not leprosy-affected. And it is implied that he was converting tribals. Says Archbishop of Delhi, Alan de Lastic: I smell something fishy; why do they seek to ignore the central issue -that of a brutal murder of a human being and his two innocent children? In fact, at the ground level, the effects of the hardliners having decided to go the whole hog despite the universal condemnation of the Staines incident are already showing: a number of Christians living in Maharashtra's villages have, in this climate of fear, packed their bags and moved out.

At the the top, the political ferment is building. The head of the fact-finding team sent by the PM to report on Staines' killing, George Fernandes, the government's troubleshooter-in-chief, said the incident was part of a conspiracy from within the country and outside, to destabilise the Vajpayee government. The whole thing has been blown up to crucify the alliance government.

The other two members were Naveen Patnaik - whose political survival is based on opposition to the Congress in Orissa - and HRD minister M.M. Joshi, known to be partial to the Sangh worldview. A senior bjp leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, implied that certain allies of the government were now in far too deep with the party to get out. Both for reasons of ideology and realpolitik (they have to fight the Congress). Trouble is expected from Jayalalitha and Mamata if Congress decides to be adventurous. TDP may make some noises but not much, with an assembly election coming up.

THE noises emanating from the aiadmk and Trinamul are certainly ominous, and if Sonia Gandhi is ready for an election or an alternative government, things are set to hot up. This is weighing on the bjp think tank, which has decided to get into an aggressive mode with certain allies. That a president who termed the Orissa incident as one belonging to the worlds inventory of black deeds may lend a responsive ear, is the other fear.

The Congress has its own dilemma though. AICC general secretary Madhavrao Scindia was almost in tears as he presented his report on the murder to Sonia. She listened impassively. But a week later at Tirupati, she threw down the gauntlet: if the bjp allies were secular, they would withdraw support. After months of characterising itself as a constructive opposition, the Congress appears to be changing track. If we stand by silently, we will be playing the role of a destructive opposition, says cwc member Purno Sangma, speaking for a majority of senior leaders. The party's economic experts had been saying another bad budget would thrust the country into a fiscal hole from which ten Manmohan Singhs couldn't pull it out. Its foreign affairs specialists have been protesting the international isolation. But the Staines' murder drove Sonia to up the ante.

Demanding a ban on the Bajrang Dal and the VHP, Sangma observed: The bjp has let lose a monster (Bajrang Dal) and they will not be able to control it. But leader of the opposition Sharad Pawar was cautious: We have two options once the bjp falls: to form the government or go for elections. We have to see what is viable. Disinclined to run a coalition and not quite prepared for elections, the party would prefer to fall back on its wait and watch strategy but one more Orissa-like incident could precipitate matters.

Sharp differences have emerged over its new soft Hindutva line. History is repeating itself. Rajiv made the same mistake with shilanyas. We paid for it, says a senior leader. At a time when minorities are under threat, the Tirupati visit could send the wrong signals. Arjun Singh suggested a visit to a Muslim shrine, but the idea was shelved. To complicate matters, Sonia refused to sign the temple register, mandatory for non-Hindus. That, says a Congressman, could be counter-productive. Already, minority leaders are upset with the new Congress line. She has shown she is ready to do anything for power, even embrace another religion. This will drive the minorities to search for an alternative, says a Church leader.

For the Sangh, though, the search seems to be just beginning. For the Other. First Muslims. Then Christians. Now localised social ferment and strife. Nothing to do with politics, of course.