To overlook the orgy of communal hatred at a recent event in Haridwar that was labelled a Hindu religious congregation as an inconsequential derangement of a fringe group may be a convenient pretext for the inaction by the police and the silence of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but the reality is scary. The passivity of the BJP is a signifier and eloquent admission of the pernicious mainstreaming of bigotry. The Uttarakhand police have betrayed a cavalier attitude in their investigation by not naming any of the ringleaders, initially, and not showing the urgency the case requires, subsequently. Speakers at the event openly called for genocide and violence. Such bigotry is not the monopoly of adherents of any particular religion, and law enforcement authorities should be eternally vigilant. The murder of two people at Sikh places of worship in Punjab in separate incidents in recent days showed how matters of religion can inflame irrational passion. In one case in Punjab, a person has been arrested and charged with murder. The shameful lynchings were followed by responses from organisations ranging from the Congress to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, but none unequivocally condemned the violence. Most reactions appeared to justify the violence, privileging abstract religious sentiments over the fundamental right to life. The Congress chief in Punjab, Navjot Singh Sidhu, spoke for many politicians seeking to exploit religion for electoral purposes when he said those who offended the faith must be hanged publicly.
That mainstream parties are unable to take an unambiguous and universal position that violence and the call for violence, in the name of faith, are unacceptable is unsettling and bodes ill for Indian democracy. Despite sporadic bursts of communal violence, India, unlike its neighbours in South Asia, has survived and thrived as a multicultural and multi-religious nation till date. Keeping it that way requires vigilance and vision. Violence originates in thought, transmits itself through speech and manifests itself in action. Targets in the recent past have ranged from interfaith couples to carol singers to cattle traders to teachers setting question papers. New laws appear to reinforce and institutionalise prejudice and intolerance. The heavy hand of the state that falls too frequently on the critics of the Government has left the mobs that threaten national unity untouched. Those who committed murder in Punjab, those who called for mass murder from Haridwar and those who vandalised Christian institutions in different places must all be brought to justice as per the law. Political parties must rise above their narrow interests during the current election cycle and unite against hate. Later may be too late.
