In the line of fire?

The outbreak of communal violence in Orissa could not have come at a worse time. After a spate of terrorist attacks across the length and breadth of the country; from Agartala to Ahmedabad and from Bangalore to New Delhi, it had seemed for a while that North and South Block would wilt under public pressure to act tough on terror. However, the events in Orissa relieved that pressure and gave the Congress and the liberal media an excuse to wiggle out of a tough corner. It sometimes feels as though in democratic India, it is only terrorists who can create pressure as and when they want, with the general public being only a seasonal player.

It seemed for a while that the force had turned against the Congress and its allies. The holy cow of political correctness had been tipped; as even left liberal heroes like Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt goaded the Congress led government for its utter inaction. The press hailed the martyrdom of Mohan Chand Sharma, the police officer who died in the Jamia Nagar encounter. Amar Singh (no less!) promised the brave inspector's family a reward of Rs. 10 lakh and the media painted those who pulled out conspiracy theories to thwart the police action in a less than glowing light. The Vice Chancellor of Jamia-Millia Islamia was quizzed over his motives behind providing legal aid to those of his students accused of heinous crimes against the state. For the left leaning English language media that holds the middle class in thrall, it was a first. It was a far cry from June 2004, when the media gasped in horror over Modi's police shooting down an "innocent" 19 year old Ishrat Jehan Sheikh, who apparently lost her way while she was going for a job interview from her home in Mumbai and wandered as far as Ahmedabad to find herself in a car with three armed men. It was a far cry even from March 2007, when the secular press shed tears of blood over the death of Sohrabuddin, the man who happened to be on a wanted list in a mere four large states. Never have so many tears been shed on the death of an innocent child in terrorist attack.

Fortunately, the freaks in the Bajrang Dal were there and eager to help. They have started a despicable campaign of violence against tribal Christians. In doing so they have handed the Congress a perfect excuse to divert the national discourse from the issue of terrorism.

Some of the violence in the Kandhmahal District is perfectly ethnic and has nothing to do with religion. But the work that the VHP and Bajrang Dal have done to consolidate the tribal Hindus has ruffled feathers in the Roman Catholic camp. In the swathes of tribal territory in the heart of India, there are many potentates trying to prey on the simple minded poor people who inhabit these regions. The third main force, apart from the Church and the Saffron brigade, is the band of Naxal rebels, who claim responsibility for the killing of VHP preacher Lakshmanananda Saraswati, the event that started the violence. In the bitter struggle for the hearts and minds of the poorest of the poor, the well funded Church has a huge advantage, an edge that the VHP seeks to meet by going berserk with violence and intimidation. Both are equally condemnable.

Now that the Catholic Church is no longer the malevolent bully it once was, its vast campaign of mental abuse goes almost unnoticed. At a time when the people of India are yearning for progress like never before; the Church is injecting superstition and bigotry into the veins of the most downtrodden of India's people. This week itself, the Church announced that it had ascertained that some Sister Alfonsa of Kerala had performed two "miracles", and this long dead person was rewarded with the status of a "saint". Now, I believe we should all be progressive and bury the records of Catholic bigotry as long as those atrocities and ideologies remain a thing of the past. But promising to help the sick and the dying, or to feed the poor and starving in return for swearing allegiance to a vast potentate of no legal international status such as the Catholic Church is most despicable. We can and we should all forgive Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) for having been a member of the Hitler Youth; but when the Pope says that "condoms are more dangerous than HIV", the Church should be recognized as a force up to no good at all.

At the same time, one should not mince any words about the manner in which the Bajrang Dal brings shame to India. The most dangerous development of all is the fact that the Dal perceives that it can have a free run in any BJP ruled state. Since the reins of power in New Delhi may soon be assumed by the BJP, reining in the fanatical fringe is no small concern. The aggression of the Dal also makes life difficult for BJP allies, as the beleaguered Navin Patnaik has found out in no small measure. However, it cannot be stressed enough that the Bajrang Dal is still a bit player when it comes to the total amount of unconstitutional activity taking place in the country. Hindu fanaticism is fed almost completely by anger over Muslim appeasement and Christian guerilla warfare at the social level. For instance, the Andhra Pradesh government recently decided to award a subsidy to Christians seeking to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Though the drain on the exchequer resulting from this measure will be small indeed, it is these little day to day favours to minorities that rankle in the collective Hindu mind.

While the debate over who killed the VHP preacher rages in political and police circles, some of the rhetoric indicates a worrying trend. Most of the Congress and the UPA want us to believe to that the preacher was killed by Naxals and as such the violence of the Bajrang Dal is "unjustified". First, even if Lakshmanananda had been hacked to death by Christian priests, there would have been no excuse to ransack Christian homes or burn down churches. More importantly, death at hands of Naxals is NOT a "natural" death. The murdered VHP preacher deserves to have the Naxal rebels brought to justice. The fact that the Congress and the UPA never once mentioned the menace that the Naxal scum have become speaks volumes about their commitment to public security in this country.

In fact, the Congress party should have come to its senses and gotten busy with creating an anti-terror agency that could deal with Naxals, Islamic terrorists and secessionists in the Northeast. The prospect of the creation of such an agency seems to grow dimmer by the day. Some weeks ago, after an innocent 9 year old boy was killed in New Delhi, minister Kapil Sibal assured us that the government was working overtime to come up with a solid strategy to tackle terror. As of Oct 18, 2008, nothing has been done in this direction. Instead the paltry gains made initially, such as in the Jamia Nagar encounter or in the arrest of terror masterminds, are being whittled away in endless political squabbles. Instead of acting tough on terror, the Congress party decided to call a meeting of the National Integration Council. Perhaps they should remember that the time for peace is not during the war, but after it.