Karl Marx had once said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” In the dying decades of the twentieth century, religion became the breeding ground of extremism and terrorism which, over the years, spread its tentacles to various parts of the world. India was one of its major victims.
It started with Punjab in the eighties and took the lives of thousands of innocent Hindus and Sikhs before it could be suppressed with a no-hoards-barred onslaught. Although the menace was contained in the nineties, Jammu and Kashmir which became its next victim in 1989 continues to be in its vice-like grip. Last few weeks developments indicate that attempts are again being made to create conditions conducive for reigniting the religious sentiments which may not take long to breed extremism in Punjab. Some vested Indian and foreign interests, particularly Pakistan’s ISI, are waiting for opportunities to play their favourite divisive game in India.
It is a warning signal for the ruling Akali Dal whose dominant leadership has started wearing emotive and radical religious mask ostensibly to contain the party’s falling popular support and fast growing anti-incumbency sentiment. To quote some examples.
Obviously to put a stop to its dwindling support and divert the attention of the deeply religious Sikhs who are Akali Dal’s main vote bank from its failures to solve their problems, the ruling Akali leadership decided to pull out from its shelves its panthic agenda. The first step in its direction was taking out in a procession the Sikh gurus revered holy relics in a Dharmik Darshan Yatra throughout the state. For giving the Yatra wide publicity, the government directed its PR department to videograph and the department’s field staff to shoot pictures of the Yatra on their own smartphones throughout its route in the state. The department’s senior officers were directed to make the videos viral on Facebook and other social networking sites.
The second example is the dominant ruling Akali leaders decision to bring former Sikh militants lodged in jails across the country to state prisons. The Central Intelligence agencies are reported to have sent report to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs taking exception to the Punjab government’s decision to bring former Sikh militants lodged in jails across the country to state prisons. The report says that this influx of militants into Punjab would not only be sensitive to the security of the state but also give the notorious elements a chance to win new sympathizers both in Punjab jails as well as outside. Then they would be frequently allowed to go out on parole. The Akali Dal’s coalition partner BJP said on Thursday that the party was not taken into confidence on the issue of transfer of all Sikh convicts jailed in terror-related cases to Punjab from across the country. Punjab BJP president Kamal Sharma said that the party was against any move that could disturb law and order in the state.
The third example is the happenings in the Golden Temple Complex on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of Operation Bluestar on June 6. What made these happenings more worrying was not only the violence perpetuated by the swords waiving youths within the Sikhs holiest place, the raising of Khalistan slogans and the Akal Takht jathedar’s controversial comments but also by the reaction to the removal of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale’s posters in Ludhiana. The posters which were removed by Congress leader Parminder Mehta (later suspended by the party) enraged Bhindranwale’s supporters. A clash between the pro-Bhindrawale Sikh groups and anti-Bhindranwale right wing Hindu groups was averted by the police by not allowing the motor cycle born pro-Bhindranwale Sikh groups to enter Old City’s Hindu-dominated business hub of Chaura Bazar. Right wing Hindu organizations including Hindu Shiv Sena and Hindu Jagriti Manch who led a march in old City alleged that it was at the behest of of the ruling Akali Dal government that terrorist organisations were making an ‘open comeback’ in the state.
History teaches lessons but cannot force the unwilling to learn them. The June 6 happenings need to be seen in the backdrop of the violence caused in the mid-fifties by Master Tara Singh-spearheaded Punjabi Suba movement. My native city Ludhiana had become the movement’s nerve centre. Punjabi Suba slogans shouting Akali youths waiving unsheathed swords used to take out processions in the Hindu-dominated main business centres including Chaura Bazar. In retaliation, the activists of a local dentist Dr. Kalicharan-led Maha Punjab Front, a Ludhiana-based extremist Hindu body patronized by the late Pratap Singh Kairon, Punjab’s then Development Minister, after perching themselves on the rooftops of the market’s surrounding buildings, pelted stones on the agitators. This not only led to imposition of curfew in the main agitation-hit business centres of the city but also ignited communal tension between Hindus and Sikhs in the state.
The forgoing developments need to be seen in the light of the divisive religious extremism which has been assuming alarming proportions since the taking over by Narendra Modi-led government. Some of Modi’s ministers and party MPs have been making communally polarizing inflammatory utterances which have evoked equally communally charged responses from some Muslim hotheads. The prime minister having the background of a committed RSS parcharak, fearing his global image was getting tarnished by such happenings, has been forced to don a communally amiable mask. What is most worrisome is that beyond giving occasional warnings to such party leaders, Modi has not taken any action against any one of his ministers, MPs or sadhvis and swamis whose provocative and polarizing utterances pose a threat to the unity and integrity of the multi-religious and multi-cultural India.
The religion-politics mix cocktail and use of religion for statecraft by Punjab’s ruling leadership as also by the RSS affiliate Hindutva hardliners in the country are primarily responsible for the worrisome situation that has developed. – IPA Service
