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Tolerant India

In our Global Village there is a continent named Europe in which there is a country called  Austria. Since February 4, all the other 14 members of the 15-member European Union   have chosen to ostracise one of its members – Austria. Why? Because a party called the  Freedom Party has become a part of the new coalition government. Inside Austria, for days   after the new government was sworn-in, tens of thousands of people demonstrated daily   demanding its dismissal. To pacify the outraged European community, the US, Israel and   others, the leader of the Freedom Party, Joerg Haider, had to personally stay away from the national government. When this did not help, he even resigned as the head of the party built almost entirely on his populist appeal. (In the last general elections held in October 1999, with 27 per cent of the total votes, the FP emerged as the second largest party in Austria).

But Austria continues to face the boycott. Why? Because Haider has built his popularity on xenophobia, on the populist demand that all foreigners (migrant workers from East Europe and the Balkans) be sent out of Austria; because his parents were Nazi supporters; and because Haider on one occasion in recent years had praised Hitler’s employment policy. He subsequently apologised but no one takes his ‘sorry’ seriously. 

This, of course, is the way of the intolerant West. Some of its leaders are so closed-minded as to insist that on some basic values, no compromise is possible. Sounds a bit like Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who said that in matters of conscience, the majority has no place. But the rest of us Indians are proud inheritors of a tolerant tradition. And even today our actions match our words. Nothing establishes our claim to our continued commitment to tolerance than our indulgence towards the saffron raj in Gujarat. 

Ø In most cities of Gujarat today, all space is communal space. Even affluent Muslims or Christians who dare dream of living in a ‘cosmopolitan’, ‘mixed’ milieu must face the consequence – violence. And the assailants will be led not by some unknown criminal but  ‘respectable people’s representatives’ also known as BJP corporators.

Ø In an increasing number of schools in Ahmedabad and elsewhere, there is no choice for the Muslims – Id days are exam days and both the students and the teachers had better be present. 

Ø It is not enough that the government – not even a BJP government, with a chief minister and a home minister who are both proud to wear their RSS on their sleeves – swears it will ensure that the Holy Cow and its progeny are duly protected. On Bakri Id day, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal insist on ‘Direct Action’ by the ‘people’. 

Ø What’s all this European fuss over Haider just because he once praised Hitler and even subsequently apologised? Or because he wants all foreigners out of his country? Why, in schools in Gujarat, every school child is being taught — through officially approved social studies textbooks — that Hitler and Mussolini were great leaders. And that India’s Muslims, Christians and Parsis are ‘foreigners’? (See page 9). 

Ø Leaflets calling upon all good Hindus to ‘Destroy Christians, Kill Them’, elaborate ‘manuals’ — advising them how to bend the law, when convenient, and break it, whenever necessary, to deal with the menace of Muslims and Christians — are being freely distributed all over the state but the police does nothing to curb the call to arms.

Ø Why blame others, the government itself repeatedly makes a mockery of the Indian Constitution.

If Gujarat were Austria and India were Europe, the deeds of the sangh parivar and the BJP government would have elicited a daily outrage. But we Indians are tolerant. Therefore, we the citizens remain silent while our politicians — Chandrababu Naidu, Mamata Bannerjee, Karunanidhi, Ram Vilas Paswan and the rest — give shoulder to Atal Behari Vajpayee. Thus the new RSS sarsanghchalak KS can boldly announce that a ‘veritable Mahabharat’ is in progress in India today between “Hindus and anti-Hindus”. And in this ‘epic battle’, Gujarat is already ‘liberated territory’, a republic within a republic, a hothouse of Hindutva, Hindu Rashtra. We better keep reminding ourselves of our tolerant tradition. Else we’ll have to face up to the fact that in calling ourselves a secular democracy we have no shame.