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Archived from the October 1993, tabloid issue of Communalism Combat
Kozhikode, a small town in Calicut district of Kerala was one of the more recent venues of Hindutva’s double-speak. Holding forth at a press conference before moving onto Kunnur, BJP president L. K. Advani vowed, once again, to provide a “riot-free administration” if voted to power at the Centre.
To reassure skeptics turned off by many nefarious deeds of Hindutavavadis that point to a diametrically opposed design, Advani concluded with his oft-repeated mantra: “Secularism is the basic tenet of Hindutva and the BJP is sworn to protect this basic tenet enshrined in the Indian Constitution.”
Lured by this cosy vision an undiscerning listener may hastily decide which way his vote must be cast next time. But it takes just a slightly closer look at some of the most violent communal clashes in the last three months to notice the game-plan of the BJP and its many affiliates in these regions.
Theirs is a strategy to systematically foment trouble, engineer communal violence in hitherto peaceful areas, enlist the support of the local administration (often in Congress-ruled states) and continue to project themselves as the sole guarantors of a riot-free India.
Manipur, in the north-east, has been the locale of some vicious “ethnic cleansing” in recent months. In the space of just 48 hours in the first week of May, 120 Muslim (Meitei) Pangals were hounded out of homes, establishments and schools in a bloody massacre that left the Imphal valley bruised and shaken.
Women were raped before they, with babes in arms, were hacked. More than 150 Muslim rickshaw-pullers are simply missing. (EyewitnessVideo News Channel of the Hindustan Times Group, June 1993).
The valley is home for 1,35,000 Muslims (70 percent of the 12 lakh population of the valley is of the Hindu Vaishnavite Maitei tribe). During August-September, over 200 Kukis – the broader name for all non-Naga, non-Hindu tribes—became victims of Naga brutality.
While the Imphal valley has for a decade-and-a –half been the scene of bloody clashes between Naga and Kuki tribes–each have their own clear goals of liberation through armed insurgency —-, recent interventions by the BJP have introduced a distinct Hindu versus the “foreign infiltrator” (read Muslims, Christians) element into what were simply tribal clashes.
The BJP’s is a strategy to systematically foment trouble, engineer communal violence in hiterto peaceful areas, enlist the support of the local administration (often in Congress-ruled states) and continue to project themselves as the sole guarantors of a riot-free India.
Meitei extremist oganisations like the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were outlawed soon after they came into existence. Nameirakpam Bisheshwar, formerly a PLA leader floated an organisation called Poramelan Apunba (the PA) with a section of the PLA to fight the cause of the Meiteis in 1992.
The Mayangs, the first target of the Meiteis, were subjected to extortion and assorted terror tactics simply because they were “outsiders”—- Bengalis, Marwaris. The business community in Manipur was gripped by fear.
It was then that L.K. Advani stepped in on a special visit to Imphal, in early 1992. A hush-hush meeting between Bisheshwar and Advani helped iron out differences. In a dramatic turnaround, the Poramelan Apunba decided to leave the business community alone and instead trained its guns on a softer target: Muslims.
A month after the return of R.K. Dorendra Singh as chief minister heading a coalition government in April 1992 and a few months after Advani’s visit the poramelan Apunba (PA) began its emulation of a common tactic of the Sangh Parivar: it attempted to build a temple at Chingei Ching hillock, 12 kilometres from Imphal at a spot used by Muslims as a burial grounds and an Idgah for decades (Illustrated Weekly, July 1993).
Though a clash was averted on May 2 last year, the PA began a drive for the ouster of all Muslims from Manipur. May 2 was declared “Boycott Muslims Day”.
That the PA acquired its anti-Muslim thrust from the BJP was publicly stated by the body last year: “Our thanks to the press and the Bharatiya Janata Party for their cooperation in the activities of the Poramelan Apunba” (Kangla Pao, dated June 21, 1992).
May 2, 1993 was observed as: Boycott Muslim Day”. It became the occasion for launching an all-out offensive against them. Meitei youths were reported to have moved on motorcycles to spread the rumour that Meitei boys and girls had been killed inside a college located in a Muslim-dominated area. No such incident occurred but sources within the administration revealed how even the police wireless network relayed the rumour to every thana (police station) in the valley.
Far-flung regions of the north-east — generally short — shrifted in news coverage and attention – are not the only playing fields for the Sangh Parivar to work-out its communal designs. A similar game–plan is obviously at work in pockets of Karnataka too, a state which is being touted as the next success story of saffron.
(Archived from the October 1993, tabloid issue of Communalism Combat with its cover story, ‘Beyond Borders; this article was on page 3)