No Life After Liberhan

The 17th anniversary of December 6, when the Babri mosque was demolished, has just passed. A few signposts have been added to the rubble of Ayodhya such as the submission of the most delayed judicial commission of inquiry—the Liberhans Commission report on the demolition. This week Parliament is debating the issue.

My friends in the BJP admit they are tied in knots on Ayodhya. Lip service to Ram must be paid as ideological convictions have to be stated in an era when the RSS is apparently managing the party’s affairs more overtly than covertly. But just consider how lacking in conviction the party today is.

For some years after the demolition the BJP would reaffirm commitment to the Ram temple on every December 6. There would be a small ceremony in the party headquarters at Ashoka Road in Delhi. This has not happened for several years. There is instead pin drop silence from the BJP on December 6. Not even a routine press statement from the usually verbose party.

The VHP however continues to issue statement after statement about the Ram Temple. All its leaders from Ashok Singhal to Praveen Togadia have called press conferences after the tabling of the Liberhans report and made the usual hysterical noises. Sadly for them no one really cares to give them much space either in print or even TV that actually thrives on extremist positions.

This December 6, again, the VHP issued statements on the day they observe as “shaurya diwas”. But when I checked with all my friends in the media no one intended to attend the press conference or make a story out of the statement. As far as the mainstream media is concerned, the lunatic fringe of the Hindu right only gets coverage when they are involved in violence. Otherwise no one really cares.

The Ram temple movement, the Ram shila puja was the glory moment for the VHP. Today they don’t count for much. Their agendas no longer impact national concerns, they have no political impact. Indeed all the successful BJP politicians like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi have made it a point to ignore the VHP brigade.

In internal RSS forums, VHP leaders, particularly Praveen Togadia, have been arguing that since the BJP has completely failed to reach for the stated goals of establishing a Hindu Rashtra, the Sangh should consider floating another political party. I am quite certain that the RSS would do so if there was any assessment that a new party would succeed in getting an inch closer to the chimera of a Hindu rasthra.

But since that does not appear to be at all feasible, the project to keep the BJP on the “right path” continues. Burdened with a demanding parent the BJP is in a manner of speaking quite oppressed with meaningless ideological baggage that has little relevance today. A senior party leader joked ruefully last week: “When there is nothing left of us we shall still be saying Hey Ram.” One can feel sorry for the moderates in the BJP who argue that no one would really ask about the RSS if it were not from the importance they gain at being masters of the political party. 

As for the VHP, they can soothe their bruised egos by looking at the huge support they are able to muster abroad among the NRI population. Individuals who leave their country to settle in foreign shores appear to find the Hindu jargon of the VHP particularly appealing. Enthusiastic supporters of Hindu Rashthra and Akhand Bharat, they inhabit the blogosphere, hurling abuse on those they perceive as enemies of their project.

In the real world in India however this lot is increasingly irrelevant.