With Ayodhya issue being downplayed, VHP's belligerent attitude whittles down

TAMING OF THE WARRIORS: The VHP's activities have been reduced to cow protection campaignsWhen the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) played a decisive role in bringing down the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, it had held out the promise of repeating its act with"Kashi, Mathura baki hai". Five years down the line, VHP stormtroopers have been reduced to a bunch of toothless wonders.They still run around the countryside, plotting and planning future movements on Kashi and Mathura. But political compulsions have forced the RSS-BJP-VHP troika to tone down its stand. Not only is the VHP not getting the go-ahead to launch new movements, it is even being forced to downplay its Ayodhya "triumph". Which is why the fifth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid is being observed at a relatively low key.Though kar sevaks will assemble at Ayodhya between December 5 and December 14, and the "heroes" who pulled down the masjid will be honoured at a virat (huge) rally of over one lakh, VHP President Vishnu Hari Dalmia is categorical that "no special importance should be attached to our programme this year"."We've done the job of breaking the mosque. Now only a BJP government at the Centre can build a temple," he says.VHP General Secretary Acharya Giriraj Kishore even had to go back on his call to kar sevaks across the country to assemble at Ayodhya. He now says that only kar sevaks from districts in the Awadh belt have been invited."I don't know why people get scared when they hear the word kar sevaks," he says. VHP Working President Ashok Singhal is also clear that "there is no all-India call to kar sevaks". "We've just invited people from the districts around Ayodhya." VHP volunteers are still fighting fit, always ready to grab their trishuls and charge out crying "Jai Shri Ram" and "Har Har Mahadev". But it's a case of all dressed up and nowhere to go. While they wait for the clarion call to rectify the "historical wrong" in Kashi and Mathura, VHP workers also keep a sharp eye out for what they describe as "nefarious and anti-national" activities of Christian missionaries.During a recent trip to the North-east, for instance, Singhal blamed the insurgencies in the region on Christian missionaries "who are stooges of the CIA". There was considerable consternation recently in VHP circles when a message arrived from the organisation's US branch claiming that the Seventh Day Adventist Church was pumping in Rs 700 crore to fund conversions in India.This paranoia over conversions is not limited to Christian missionaries. VHP activists also appear to have great faith in the virility of the Muslim male. Says a leader: "Muslims follow a more insidious path to conversion - seduction and then marriage with innocent Hindu girls."Training camps of the Durga Vahini lack motivationIt is to fight these real and imaginary battles that the VHP often conducts training camps for Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini activists. But the familiar Hindutva war cries no longer have a menacing ring.At a recent week-long Durga Vahini camp at Ayodhya, the mood was distinctly downbeat. Only 175 women attended and missing from the scene was Durga Vahini leader Sadhvi Rithambara, reportedly recovering after a minor surgery. The lady has all but disappeared from the public eye since she was last heard screaming "Ek dhakka aur" as the Babri Masjid was brought down. Fellow Sadhvi Uma Bharati has done much better for herself, abandoning the shrill postures of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement to evolve into one of the most energetic campaigners of the BJP. As a BJP MP and president of the party's youth wing, Bharati has distanced herself from the VHP.But in January next year she will lead a three-day-long VHP-backed padyatra to shut down the Al-Kabeer slaughter house in Hyderabad. Bharati justifies the agitation saying "more animals are killed in mechanised slaughter houses which also put traditional butchers out of business".Al Kabeer has long been a target as VHP activists claim that cows are often slaughtered there along with buffaloes and oxen. This concern for the holy cow continues to mobilise the entire Sangh parivar into activity. So while Bharati's Yuva Morcha gathered 5,000 Muslim youths who pledged to oppose cow slaughter, the VHP also launched the first of its gau raksha (cow protection) raths in the capital last week. Fifty such raths will soon hit the roads. Evidence of the bovine wonders is on display at the VHP's headquarters in Delhi's Sankat Mochan Mandir. An outlet there stocks products such as soap made from cow dung that, according to Giriraj Kishore, is "guaranteed to remove pimples", and Kamdhenu churan made from cow's urine for stomach ailments. Sridhar Acharya, who mans the outlet, claims there are 26 medicinal products derived from the cow. Besides the holy cow, the fate of the holy Ganges is also causing consternation. The VHP has decided to oppose the construction of the Tehri Dam because "it will mean the end of the Ganga as we know it today", according to Dalmia.In October-November, a group of VHP activists led by Swami Chinmayananda began a 24-day river yatra from Calcutta to Prayag. "The steamer travelled upstream - against the current like the VHP," laughs Giriraj Kishore. While they wait for a change in the national mood, some in the VHP are busying themselves with rather novel projects. Such as the "holocaust museum" planned by VHP Secretary and former BJP MP B.L. Sharma "Prem".The museum, says Sharma "will show the oppression of Hindu masses by the Islamic conquerors and later the British". Though Sharma plans to cover 12 centuries "since the first Muslim invasion of Mohammad bin Qasim", the museum will largely deal with the horrors "faced only by Hindus" of the Partition of 1947. Such scattered activity signals a lack of direction. But the VHP has only itself to blame for this period of drift: post-Ayodhya, the organisation has not been able to come up with a single bright idea. Sympathisers point to a failure to take up socially relevant issues such as Dalits' entry into temples. "Certain business and upper-caste interests have hampered the VHP's growth," says a BJP leader. "It remains an agitational outfit." In the five years since Ayodhya, the VHP has been awaiting the next call to battle. The lurking doubt is best described by a volunteer: "What if the call never comes?"Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 15, 1997 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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With Ayodhya issue being downplayed, VHP's belligerent attitude whittles down

With the Ayodhya issue being downplayed, the organisation's belligerent attitude has whittled down as it engages in relatively low-key campaigns.

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