Editorial

India’s Values at Stake

Gujarat carnage has put India to shame. The terrible communal flare-up that claimed over 600 lives (unofficially over 5,000) and refuses to subside is an avoidable bloodbath. Reports of massacre of innocent people including women and children has rudely shaken the nation’s conscience and tarnished India’s image and undermined its secular credentials. A nation that boasted itself as the land of many religions and faiths which coexisted in enviable harmony since times immemorial today faces the charge of religious intolerance. The bulk of India’s multi-racial multitude continues to be wedded to secularism and still enjoys the harmony and charm of unity in diversity. They are aware of the fundamental fact that if democracy has not only survived in India, but also flourished, setting a glorious example in a world torn by dictatorship and religious orthodoxies, it is entirely due to the diverse nature of its population. And the majority Hindus have throughout their history not only welcomed but promoted happily other faiths and thoughts synthesizing a cultural milieu that is unique and exemplary. That India today stands ashamed of its own contemporary destiny. Surely the world knows and every Indian is conscious that the black scar on the nation’s face is the handiwork of a few groups and factions which seek power and pelf through fanatical slogans and actions. For them the lessons from history, the Nazi holocaust and even the recent Taliban’s terrible rule, make no sense.

What happened in Gujarat does not at all reflect the common conscience of India. Yet, the whole nation pays the price since the crimes of a few shatter the future of the whole nation. Any radical analysis of the events that led to the senseless and merciless massacre appears futile as long as the BJP continues to be in power and believes in obscurantist ideas. The tragedy of India today is that religious fanatics masquerading as a political force, is holding the country and the future of its 100 crore people to ransom. This minuscule clique has neither a genuine mandate from the people nor a widely accepted manifesto. But then democracy permits in its liberal and unrestricted approach to human management even such evil forces to seize power. It has happened elsewhere too. Undoubtedly this is a passing phase, yet another test to the conviction and commitment of the Indians in democracy. India will surely emerge victorious and throw into the dustbin of history those vampires who seek power at any cost.

While this is a certainty, the Indians must also be mentally conscious of the new trends emerging from the man-made violence that has begun sprouting in different parts of the nation. The carnage in Gujarat shows a disturbing pattern and threatens to turn caste-conflicts and communal frictions into an institutionalized crime, like militancy. Communal violence has become bread and butter for some groups just as the militancy and terrorism have become a way of life for some others. The nation must be on guard against these elements and checkmate their designs before they manage to create anarchy, sabotage economic development, undermine peoples’ faith in the political system. People are always supreme. It is they who can save the nation. This, they can do, by rejecting those who do not sincerely believe in the composite culture and values of India.