160 "Presenting" the Past
West Bengal. Similarly, the Orissa legislative assembly was not by any
means a lesser seat of democracy than the Jammu and Kashmir assem-
bly, or, for that matter, the national parliament. Nonetheless, there was no
attempt to haul up the VHP attackers in Orissa under the newly enacted
draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). The 2002 Gujarat pogrom
was quite different from most other communal riots India has witnessed
in recent times. There were several distinct factors that had to do with the
Hindutva ideology, and the emerging Hindu Rashtra made it that way,
and quite naturally secular Indians worry about the country's future.
Employing several tactics such as stereotyping, scapegoating, victim
blaming, oversimplifying issues, doublespeak, eliminating choice, and
implementing a comprehensive agenda in a piecemeal fashion, the Sangh
Parivar has managed to bring hatred closer to present-day politics, to
heighten the importance of religious beliefs for political behavior, to offer
fundamentalism as a means of achieving social stability, and to occupy the
center stage of Indian national politics and the core of the sociocultural
transactions. Rather than presenting a coherent vision and program for
the country, the Sangh Parivar creates ideological confusions and tries to
reap political dividends from the chaos.
When the country was yearning for a leadership that would build its
future on one billion dreams and hopes, the BJP-led government resur-
rected the country's past with nonissues, secretive projects, dangerous
adventurisms, and divisive programs. For the BJP-led Aya Ram Gaya Ram
government, which sought to retain power through opportunistic alliances
with a bunch of parties and leaders who were either ideologically blind or
politically lost and to preserve the bigoted parivar vote bank with unprin-
cipled politics, Ramraksha (Ram protection) became the most favorite
program. Members of the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, and other "brotherly"
organizations intruded into the Indian bureaucracy, military, police, and
management positions, giving rise to serious repercussions both in the
governance of the country and in crisis management (such as riot control).
Marginalization of women, violation of children's rights, intimidation of
minorities, perpetuation of caste oppression, and annihilation of dissent
damaged the socio-economic-political life in India.
The BJP that characterized itself once as "the party with a difference"
led a dubious government in Delhi that was best described as "the govern-
ment without a difference." Scams and scandals surfaced at regular inter-
vals, and there was hardly any department that had not been affected by
multi-crore swindles. The telecom scandal, the sugar scam, the UTI fraud,
the Ketan Parekh stock-market swindle, defense-deal deceptions exposed
by Tehelka.com, the coffin scam, the petro scam, the land scam, and many
other fiascoes exposed the true colors of the BJP and its government in
Delhi. The party president, Bangaru Laxman, himself was videoed while
accepting wads of currency notes from alleged arms dealers.