THE TONE ADOPTED by the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, and
the issues he raised in the course of his `Gaurav Rath Yatra' from
Phagwel, have established so clearly that the BJP as a party is bent
upon consolidating the "gains" made by the terror campaign unleashed
by other Sangh Parivar outfits post-Godhra. The presence of an array
of the party's leaders (including Rajnath Singh from the central
leadership) at Phagwel is indeed a pointer that the BJP is clearly
unwilling to acknowledge the pogrom across the State since February
27 as a blot (as described by the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, at
that time). The sequence of events leading up to the "Yatra" reveal
so clearly the sinister designs behind the campaign and suggest that
the developments in Gujarat during the past few months are
fundamentally different from the several instances of communal
violence witnessed in other parts of the country in the past. While
such instances of anti-minority violence - Meerut, Malliana,
Bhagalpur, Mumbai and Bhiwandi - during the 1980s could be seen as
the immediate consequence of a political campaign where religious
passions were whipped up, the events in Gujarat, post-Godhra, point
to a pattern where the strategy clearly was to exclude, for ever, the
members of the minority community from the democratic space.

The fact that the BJP insists on celebrating the violence unleashed
by the stormtroopers of the Sangh Parivar for weeks on end after
February 27 (the choice of the word "gaurav" cannot convey anything
but this) is a clear enough message about the party's end game. For
this very reason, it is difficult to treat the "Gaurav Rath Yatra" as
merely another instance of a political party exercising its right to
reach out to the people in a democratic set-up. The campaign, in this
instance, is clearly aimed at conveying to the members of the
minority community across Gujarat the same message that the marauding
mobs sent for weeks on end post-Godhra. The majoritarian agenda is
being carried out, without even a pause, so that the members of the
minority community (and also those within the majority community who
do not agree with the Sangh Parivar's agenda) are excluded from the
democratic process and this has the full backing of the state. The
campaign is rooted in a political strategy that negates the notion of
democracy based on pluralist values. For this very reason, the
"Gaurav Rath Yatra" cannot be seen as merely a part of the BJP's
normal campaign for the State Assembly elections.

The systematic manner in which Mr. Modi and his associates in the
Sangh Parivar have been distorting the democratic discourse and
running down institutions (the vicious campaign against the Chief
Election Commissioner being the latest) only confirms the sinister
designs and the extent to which the BJP as a party is willing to go
to implement its majoritarian agenda. The dangerous implications of
this campaign go beyond that of a party making use of religious
identity for political gains. The Sangh Parivar's agenda, as it is
being unravelled at every stage of the BJP's moves in the Gujarat
context, points out very clearly that the end game is not restricted
to mobilisation on communal lines alone and extends to destroying the
democratic structure as such. It is becoming clear by the day that
the violence against the members of the minority community and their
properties was not just the fallout of a failure of the state
machinery. Instead, it was an instance where the majoritarian agenda
was carried out with precision and determination. This is what is
signified by the "Gaurav Rath Yatra". The reality being what it is,
it is imperative for the parties opposed to the Sangh Parivar's
agenda (the Congress in particular) to realise the dangers ahead and
plunge into a campaign that does not stop with the immediate concerns
of the Assembly polls in Gujarat.