10th Anniversary Issue
August - September 2003 

Year 10    No.90-91
LAW


 


‘Laying bare the fascist agenda’

Prashant Bhushan

The demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, and the communal carnage in Bombay that followed, have been turning points in India’s political history. Though the foundations of communal fascism had been laid long before that, with the birth of the RSS, the demolition of the Babri Masjid heralded an era where a mainstream political party seriously vying for power formally laid out its political strategy of seeking power by dividing the country on communal lines and fuelling hatred between communities by promoting communal riots and violence.

This core political strategy has been pursued simultaneously with the projection of a leader with a soft and secular appearance, which has permitted the party to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. The recent carnage in Gujarat and the elections that followed saw the party dropping even this mask and it now appears to be poised and willing to pursue an openly divisive and communal agenda and strategy. With such a party being in power at the Centre, and this strategy paying handsome dividends at the elections in Gujarat, we are dangerously close to the creation of a communal fascist State.

Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand and their team, which founded Communalism Combat ten years ago, soon after the Bombay riots and the demolition of the Babri Masjid, had the clarity of vision and foresight to see what was coming. In the last ten years, Communalism Combat has done remarkable work in exposing this menace and laying bare this sinister and fascist agenda. It has confronted the communal and fascist forces frontally, fearlessly and pursued the issues that it has taken up doggedly till the end. It was largely because of the determination and doggedness with which Communalism Combat pursued the investigation into the Bombay riots that the Srikrishna Commission was able to produce a report, which will remain a permanent and useful document for exposing the methodology and agenda of the communal forces that have slowly been tightening their grip over the levers of power in this country. The Communalism Combat team has also been instrumental in exposing the brutality and venality of the Modi government and its role in the Gujarat riots.

It is only because of the interventions of such civil society organisations that communal fascism has not succeeded in overwhelming some institutions, particularly the judiciary and the press in this country. I congratulate the Communalism Combat team for the sterling public service rendered by them. May their voices of sanity become louder with time and grow to overwhelm the communal forces in this country.

(Prashant Bhushan is a senior advocate, Supreme Court of India).


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