A clear demonstration of what may be called communalisation of demonstration politics was visible on March 3 in Lucknow where rampaging Muslim youth forced Hindu shopkeepers to shut their shop and join them in protesting against the visit of President Bush. The clash that ensued led to police firing, loss of property and some regrettable deaths, mostly minors, as was reported in a section of the press.

The protestors in Lucknow had somehow drawn a link between the Bush visit and the controversy over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet in a Danish paper. It is doubtful if the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal would have motivated the protestors sufficiently to mobilise themselves after Friday prayers and go around forcing shopkeepers to down their shutters. Muslims in Lucknow, a city where the Shia sect dominates, are obviously also incensed over the arm-twisting efforts of the US against Shia Iran over the latter’s nuclear programme. The full force of their anger coincided with the visit of Bush, though the critics of the Indian government’s stand on the Iran nuclear controversy insist that the opposition to the government stand is purely on political grounds.

The momentum for anti-US or anti-Bush feelings turning into a climax of fury in the country had gathered pace on a secular platform with contribution from all communities, not just the Muslim community, for the simple reason that the present bout of ‘anti-Americanism’ predates the Danish cartoon crisis. In large part it was started by the Left organisations with later support from many other politically ‘secular’ outfits some of which in danger of dissipation of their hold on the minority votes. Many in the country, however, thought that the Iran nuclear issue saw the Left articulations aligned more to the thoughts of the Persian clerics than the didactic Marxists of the previous century.

The Left views on the Indo-US nuclear deal did have a ‘swadeshi’ overtone, which was later reinforced by the concerns of some nuclear scientists worrying that the Americans were trying to cap India’s nuclear capabilities in the shape of offering a ‘deal’ on civilian nuclear cooperation. But at the root of the Left opposition must be their traditional and blind anti-Americanism and a fear that ‘capitalist’ US is out to erase the last traces of the (fading?) proletariat movement-- in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. For the Left the twin issues of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme and the Indo-US nuclear deal were a good opportunity to whip up emotions against the US and the visit of President Bush at a time when, going by a host of public opinion ‘surveys’, more and more Indians see the US as a friend and shedding their previous prejudices.

The Left initiative made things easier for those in the minority community who were looking to exploit the situation in their own interest. These minority representatives converted political issues into minority issues unmindful of the fact that the first push against the US moves on Iran and the nuclear deal came from members of the other communities who had also lent full support to denunciation of the Danish cartoons.

It will be tragic if there is an invisible hand of some ‘secular’ parties as this nefarious game of communal divide is played out, particularly in UP which is already on the path of a political crisis with the ruling combine seeing power slip out of its hands. On the other hand, ‘communal’ parties will be only too delighted to get an opportunity to ‘sell’ their hard line and regain some of the ground they had lost after the last general election.

While there are many in the country, who disagree with the protests against the US, it has to be assumed that US criticism does not raise on communal consideration. That hypothesis makes it hard to interpret the anti-Bush protests in Lucknow, Hyderabad and elsewhere as a communal exercise. There have been occasions in the past when strike calls given by the BJP or one of its ‘family’ members such as the VHP has been opposed by the minority community. The BJP or its sister organisations have then taunted the Muslims for not joining them. Sometimes, the Muslim opposition has been used as an excuse by the extremists in the majority community to inflame communal passions. The secular parties as well as the majority of the society did not approve of attempts at communalising any public agitation. But what was infinitely more unfortunate was that certain secular causes such as opposing US policies acquired an unnecessary communal colour.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

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