Ayodhya has changed the political discourse of the country
with events unfolding since 1949, after India started its journey as an independent
sovereign nation on August 15, 1947. India
began as a democratic country with socialist ethos at its core and the word ‘secular’
was rightly added to further the spirit.
But our lawmakers have failed us, right from 1947. Socialist
and secular are all encompassing words that signify and qualify every other
word that has become essential to our political discourse today, i.e.,
nationalism and even Hindutva. Nationalism had to be an extension of our socialist
and secular ethos. Hindutva had to be nothing more than a way of life practiced
by the majority in the country which gave equal respect to all other ‘ways of
life’.
But we have messed it all up and as a results, the words
that should define the spirit of our diverse society, have become mere tools to
maintain political goalposts. Socialism, secularism, nationalism, Hindutva, all
have come to define different goalposts in a society that is still trying to
make sense that where it intended to go when it began its journey 70 years ago.
And Ayodhya has played a central role in this narrative. And
the events that shaped this narrative are:
DECEMBER 22, 1949 - RAMLALLA IDOL
PLACED: Ending over 400 years of status-quo. The history says, though then Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was furious at placing of the idol in the disputed
structure, he was never alert enough to visit Ayodhya even once.
19 FEBRUARY 1981, MEENAKSHIPURAM
CONVERSIONS: A Tamil Nadu village, Meenakshipuram, saw a mass conversion, and
was renamed as Rahmat Nagar. It was the beginning of the ascendance of majority
appeasement politics in the country as opposed to minority appeasement that
dominated the politics of the country till then. Talks of Ayodhya and Ram
Janmabhoomi to be taken in a mission mode began here.
1984 - THE SHAH BANO CASE: The way Rajiv
Gandhi surrendered before the compulsions of minority appeasement and
overturned a Supreme Court ruling on a social malaise that was affecting
millions of Muslim women, it further sent out a message that government was
ready to go to any extent to save its votebanks. It also sent a powerful
message that the government that was so appeasement centric that it could
overturn a historic decision of the top court of the land, could never be friendly
to the interests of the majority. And there were many takers of it.
FEBRUARY 1, 1986, ORDER TO UNLOCK THE
GATES: Though a local court ordered it, the governments, at centre and in Uttar
Pradesh, were so complicit that they never thought to challenge it in a higher
court. Instead, the padlock was immediately opened after the judge’s order who
quoted his religious experiences while delivering the judgement. It was in
stark comparison to Rajiv Gandhi’s stand on the Shah Bano case. That was pure
minority appeasement. But the stand taken here tells us that Rajiv had started
feeling the pressure of a parallel political movement taking shape that was
adopting majority appeasement and had chosen the most direct tool to reach out
to the masses – religion. Rajiv’s stand also tells us he might have seen that
it was going to be the future’s political currency and therefore, let’s try
hands there.
1989 - UNRAVELLING OF THE BOFORS SCAM: A
pure political development that added to various sorts of pressures increasing
day by day on Rajiv Gandhi and his government.
1989 ELECTIONS - PRESSURE OF
MISHANDLING SRILANKA: A foreign policy fiasco that further dented the
credibility of Rajiv Gandhi.
1989 SHILANYAS OF TEMPLE BY VHP: It is
said that, both the Congress government in Uttar Pradesh and at centre, could
have stopped it. But when see that Rajiv Gandhi began his poll campaign for the
1989 Lok Sabha polls from Faizabad, we can easily find why they didn’t take
proper legal interest to stall the VHP’s plans.
1989-91 - VP SINGH'S JAN MORCHA AND
MANDAL POLITICS: VP Singh had left Congress on the issue of the Bofors scam but
the pressure on him to save his coalition government pushed him to latch on to
something that would again derail the Indian ship. He chose to branch out his
majority appeasement politics by trying to divide the majority society into
different higher and lower castes, through the Mandal proposals, that we now
know as India’s caste based reservation system. Though VP Singh could not reap
its benefits, we, as a society, are still cursed to weather its bad effects
when we find that caste-equations and not development define the core agenda of
the parties.
ANTI-MANDAL VIOLENCE AND PRESSURE ON VP
SINGH: Implementation of the Mandal proposals led to widespread demonstrations
and violence. It increased pressure on the VP Singh government to the extent
that he had to go soft on Ayodhya, another important element of the majority
appeasement politics.
SEPTEMBER 25, 1990: ADVANI KICKS OFF HIS
RATHYATRA - THE MANDAL SPIN: The BJP cleverly used the deepening Ayodhya
sentiments and the anti-Mandal protests to its advantage. It could make voters believe
that it was their right representative in these circumstances. The electoral
gains made by the BJP supported it. The party that could win just two seats in
the previous Lok Sabha polls in 1984, won 85 seats in 1989.
OCTOBER 30, 1990: Police firing on kar sevaks
in Ayodhya led to five deaths. Mulayam Singh Yadav was Uttar Pradesh’s chief
minister. Another 15 kar sevaks were killed in police firing on November 2.
Mulayam’s acts sent out a message that he was all about minority appeasement or
as his political opponents could make people believe, at least those who did
not vote for Mulayam and the 2017 UP assembly polls tell us that the sentiment
has got stronger.
1991: The BJP’s first big political foray
in the mainstream. It came to power in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh. It was the beginning of the
emergence of a political alternative in India that would make Congress like a
regional party in 25 years, as the Congress’ situation is now. And this
emergence was built on majority politics, opposed to Congress’ minority politics.
DECEMBER 6, 1992: Babri demolition and the
aftermath – the riots of December 1992 that engulfed the country. The Bombay
riots of December 1992 and January 1993 and subsequent serial blasts in India’s
financial capital that killed scores. The majority Vs minority started becoming
central to the political discourse in the country.
©SantoshChaubey