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| Suresh 'Bhaiyyaji' Joshi |
V. S. Naipual,
during his 2004 visit to India, described Ayodhya as “a sort of passion to be
encouraged.” His argument was that passion leads to creativity and Indians are
rather short of creativity.
Indians seem
to be better at demolitions, riots and destruction. Even when we speak about
constructing a temple at Ayodhya, destructive malevolence seems to run at the
bottom of the desire. For almost two centuries, Ayodhya has been a potent metanarrative
in India, especially for the North Indian Hindus. Various people and political
parties have used it effectively for rousing up the passions of large numbers
of people. Finally when the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992 under the
pontificate of L. K. Advani, Ayodhya lost its emotional fervour at least for a
while.
Justifying the
demolition Champat Rai, a joint general secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad
[VHP], said that the Babri Masjid was a “signpost of slavery for over 450 years
and the self-respecting Bharat wanted to undo that statement of national
humiliation and shame.”
However, that “statement
of national humiliation and shame” which aroused the patriotic and religious
fervour of a whole lot of people was lost altogether when it was demolished. It
would have been easier to mobilise the Hindus against the Masjid than for
a temple. It is always easy to rouse up passions against something than for
something; rebellion and destruction are more natural and more interesting than
creation and harmony.
When the
Masjid ceased to exist and thus ceased to be a passion-generator, the BJP
invented another metanarrative: development.
Thus Narendra Modi rode the royal road to the throne in Delhi in 2014
piggybacking on sky-high developmental promises.
Modi failed to
deliver, however. He turned out to be a windbag filled with hollow promises. So,
in order to win the forthcoming elections, the Sangh Parivar stands in need of
another metanarrative. Shorn of creative imagination, Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi,
the RSS Pope, has threatened to repeat 1992 and some people have responded
earnestly.
1992 was a
bloodbath unleashed on the nation by a crowd of ‘Kar Sevaks’. The aftermath of
the demolition of the Babri Masjid resounded disastrously in Mumbai, Delhi,
Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Bhopal and several other places, eventually resulting
in over 2000 deaths. This is what ‘Bhaiyyaji’ is offering the nation. What a
pathetic lack of imagination, vision and creativity!
I just hope we don't see any of those horrendous days ever again.
ReplyDeleteLet me share your hope. But the reality is stark.
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