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Woh Haath Kaat Daalega...
But will the Badals see the 800-pound Hindutva
gorrilla in the bedroom?
Parmeet Pal
Singh
 PILIBHIT/NEW
DELHI:
Notwithstanding the differences the size of Indian Ocean among
India's
political parties, they would agree on one thing -- Not a single
politician would like to be compared to Sanjay Gandhi, the dirty
word of Indian body polity of the 1970s vintage.
But when Varun
Gandhi went to Pilibhit to enact a tamasha of courting arrest, the
slogans in the air were "Doosra Sanjay Gandhi Hai". Only and only
the BJP can swallow such a leader as its poster boy.
A young man who
talks of cutting off Muslims' hands, pushing them into Pakistan and
forcibly putting them through vasectomy to control their population
has succeeded in setting the agenda for the election debate in India
with just half a dozen speeches in back of the beyond Pilibhit where
religion wise demographic break up could have made possible a win
for him only if he consolidated all the Hindu votes.
In order to
prove himself a more poisonous variety even within the Hindutva
brigade, Varun Gandhi painted the Sikhs also as terrorists and
announced from the microphone that he does not require the votes of
the "Pakistanis" or the "Khalistanis" and he only wanted the votes
of "mera apna samaj".
His speeches
began and ended with shrill sounding Jai Shree Rams, and the
rhetoric would hardly find a pride of place in any religious minded
person's heart, irrespective of what his religion is.
Since
India does not
allow Pakistanis to vote in Pilibhit and Khalistan is not on the
horizon at least for another two months, Varun's fears were rather
misplaced. Neither the Pakistanis nor the Khalistanis were eagerly
waiting to cast their votes for him. But yes, the Muslims and the
Sikhs did get a signal.
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The only
ones who missed the 800-pound gorrilla in the bedroom were
Parkash and Sukhbir Singh Badal. Both defended Varun Gandhi
saying since the Congress has given tickets to Jagdish Tytler
and Sajjan Kumar, it has no moral authority to criticise the BJP
for Varuni's speeches. But who took away Akali Dal’s moral
authority to criticize this young Gandhi whose father was an
instrument of minority torture during Emergency? |
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The only ones
who missed the 800-pound gorrilla in the bedroom were Parkash Singh
Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal. Both defended Varun Gandhi and said
since the Congress has given tickets to Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan
Kumar, it has no moral authority to criticise the BJP for Varun
Gandhi's speeches. Also, there was the fig leaf of Varun Gandhi
making an ambiguous statement about "this is not my voice" and "CDs
are doctored". The House of Badals has often required much less than
a fig leaf to hide behind, duck and let the storm pass till it comes
up with a new family member dusted, readied, polished and trained
for the larger common good of the panth.
So Sukhbir Badal
defended Varun Gandhi better than Navjot Sidhu, and the rest of the
Akali Dal fell silent. The SGPC heard some murmurs and then
understood the message from the supremos. Meanwhile, the BJP went
ahead turning Varun into a hero.
He "appeared"
near the court premises in Pilibhit, was arrested and sent to jail
for a couple of days for mandatory custody, but not before massive
lathicharge and firing took place and more than two scores of people
were in hospital with bullet wounds. His mother Maneka Gandhi spoke
softly on TV channels describing how the politicians from the
opposition and the media men were verbally lynching his young son
just because he expressed a heartfelt desire to cut off the hands of
all the Muslims.
Varun, the
puppet directed by the puppet masters of the BJP, knew the script
must start and end with Jai Shri Ram but between the slogans at the
beginning and at the end, there must not be any place for anything
sane. “I am not afraid of going to jail. If it generates confidence
in some people, I will go to jail.”
It did generate
a lot of confidence in a lot of Varun's people, and if Election
Commission permits a pre-poll, the number of those wanting to cut
off the hands of the Muslims should have gone up considerably. With
L K Advani and Rajnath Singh planning to visit Pilibhit, poor
Muslims would be wondering if they can now ever be blamed for having
a hand in any untoward incident, or having a hand at all.
But the woman
who has perfected the art of outsmarting politicians, including
those much smarter than Varun Gandhi, was sitting with an ace up her
sleeve. On Sunday night, CM Mayawati ordered that Varun be booked
under the harsh National Security Act (NSA) for ‘‘inciting communal
passions with his inflammatory utterances’’ against the minority
community. The copy of the order was served on Varun in Pilibhit
jail and he was charged under Section 3(2) of the NSA.
This effectively
makes it impossible for Varun to come out of jail as the maximum
period of detention under NSA is three months. It suits both sides.
For the BJP, it is a godsent opportunity to polarise votes in UP and
rest of the country ahead of the elections. For the BSP, Mayawati
can say now she is taller than Lalu who had arrested L K Advani,
bringing his Ram Mandir juggernaut matador-turned-into-Lord Rama's
rath to a grinding halt. The Samajwadi Party can accused BJP and BSP
of being hand in glove and Congress can claim it is the holiest of
all.
Indian politics
has predictable spaces for all elements as long as they are suitably
brahamanised into the mould that the Indian political chaos is. A
chaos where only the marginalised pay the price by never coming to
the centrestage. Life on the periphery remains untouched, and that
ensures smooth ride for all hues from saffron to tricolor.
1 April 2009
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