Bowing before Bajrang Dal

Bajrang Dal activists are on a rampage in Madhya Pradesh. From beating up foreigners on suspicion of carrying beef to pelting stones at the house of a Muslim driver...

Bajrang Dal activists are on a rampage in Madhya Pradesh. From beating up foreigners on suspicion of carrying beef to pelting stones at the house of a Muslim driver, who had accidentally hit a cow on the road, it seems they are wearing their misplaced emotions on their sleeves.

Whipping up communal passions at the slightest pretext and going out of their way like they did in Chhindwara when they targeted two South Africans, who it was later found out had pork and chicken in their vehicle, the saffron activists are redefining lawlessness in a state that is alleged to be going soft on them.

Bajrangis as they are identified in common parlance have always been a law unto themselves but a sudden surge in their activism has caught the administration on the wrong foot. Lending the saffron outfit a helping hand is its elder sibling the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which has wide network in the state.

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The recent spurt in their activities began with the recovery of a large number of carcasses of cows outside Mandsar town a few days after Id-Ul-Zuha celebrated on January 1. The town observed a bandh to protest the alleged slaughter of cows followed by a series of bandh calls in nearby towns keeping the region on the edge for a long time.

Even before peace was restored, it was time for Muharram, yet another test for the administration. Hindu festivals coincided with Muharram and saw both communities out in large number leading to violence and imposition of curfew in Jabalpur, Indore and Biaora town of Rajgadh district.

Between Id-Ul-Zuha and Moharram came the controversy over the BJP government’s decision to organise a surya namaskar and pranayam programme across schools and colleges in Madhya Pradesh. The minority community’s opposition to the state-sponsored event and a call to boycott the programme en mass did not help improve the rift.

So disturbed governor Balram Jakhar was by the turn of events that he called up DGP A R Pawar and asked him to improve the law and order situation in the state. The government was in two minds about the worsening communal situation: whether to call it a conspiracy to malign the state or to describe the events purely in policing terms as unrelated sporadic incidents of violence.

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Minister of state for home Nagendra Singh chose the latter and said the government would come down heavily on elements bent on creating disturbances, without clarifying who he thought was behind it. The lawlessness has coincided with the time when the government is seriously doing its bit to attract investors to a state that simply did not figure in their scheme of things before. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was so candid about the investors’ lack of interest in the central Indian state that he admitted after a discussion with potential investors in Khajuraho that they said, “We didn’t know we could invest in Madhya Pradesh.”

Apart from Bijli-Sadak-Pani issues that cost the previous Congress government dearly, helping the BJP’s cause in the last Assembly elections was saffron organisations like Bajrang Dal, VHP and Hindu Jagaran Manch. Leading the BJP campaign then was Uma Bharati, a favourite of the Hindu organisations. The leader is now out in the cold.

No wonder, the Congress is milking the recent instances of communal violence by blaming it all on the saffron family. The party has complained about it to the Centre and knocked on the Raj Bhavan doors on several occasions, saying the government was looking the other way because the same activists brought votes for the ruling party.