Asghar Ali Engineer

(Secular Perspective August 1-15, 2000)

The citizens of Bombay experienced a great deal of tension for ten days when the Government of Maharashtra proposed to arrest the Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray and prosecute him for his inflammatory editorials which he wrote to incite riots in January 1993 in Bombay after demolition of Babri Masjid. The arrest was sought to be effected after lapse of seven years. It was being debated by legal experts whether the case is time barred or not. The legal luminaries were evenly divided on the issue. However, this time the Government of Maharashtra (or the Home Minister Mr.Bhujbal?) was determined to arrest Bal Thackeray ostensibly to prove that no one is above the law of the land but the way the drama of arresting Bal Thakeray for a few minutes was enacted ended up proving that people like Bal Thakeray are above the law.

It is difficult to gauge what real intention of the Government was. A report in a section of the press indicated that some MLAs belonging to the NCP (National Congress Party) were conspiring to defect from their party and support the Shiv Sena- BJP Government to be formed. But they could not muster enough numbers and the Congress-NCP Government could not be brought down. When the news of likely defections leaked out, Bhujbal who is Home Minister was furious and he was then determined to teach Bal Thackeray a lesson for attempting to bring down the Government. And hence he cleared the file for arresting Bal Thackaray. Subsequently 10 NCP members cross-voted in the election for legislative council which gives credibility to the above story.

This story may or may not be correct. It is beside the point. The real point is why all this fuss for arresting Bal Thackeray after seven years holding the entire population of Bombay at ransom. Neither Mr.Sudhakar Rao Naik who was chief minister when the 1992-93 riots were raging nor Mr Sharad Pawar who became chief minister after Mr.Naik was removed took any action against Bal Thackaray. In fact when some prominent citizens of Bombay met Mr.Naik when Bombay was burning to urge upon him to take suitable action against the culprits to control the riots he said why have you come to me, go to Bal Thackeray and request him to stop inciting. Mr.Naik thus had totally abdicated the function of the governance to Thackeray. Where was the question of arresting him.

Mr. Sharad Pawar was more prompt in taking action against those responsible for bomb explosions in March 1993 than arresting the culprits of Bombay riots. He promptly booked the culprits of bomb explosion and even hundreds of innocent citizens, particularly those residing in Mahim area were arrested and not a single Shiv Senik responsible for rioting was touched let alone arresting Thackeray. The Bombay police wrote to the government seeking permission to arrest him but there was complete silence from the government. The question also arises why the police should seek permission to arrest Bal Thackeray? He is neither government servant nor M.P. nor MLA. He has not even contested any election in his life. Permission to arrest is needed only for government servant. Probably the police was afraid of the consequences and did not want to take any responsibility.

The way Bal Thackeray was arrested for a few minutes clearly shows that there are people who append to be above law of the land. Even if they conspire to kill hundreds of innocent people and destroy properties worth crores of rupees they cannot be proceeded against. Bal Thackeray is one amongst them. The Government took more than 10 days to stage the drama of arresting him after deciding to arrest him. Meanwhile the whole city was tense and most of the Bombayites had suspended their activities. This is highly unusual way of privileging a person notorious for his inciting raw emotions of bunch of his hooligans. It is a sad commentary over functioning of our democracy.

Our democracy is now run by those who thrive on inciting caste or communal passions. There is at best pretension of tackling issues. In fact the issue-based politics has vanished in thin air. Now in retrospect the first decade of our democracy from 1950 to 60 appears to be far more value based in its orientation than the decades following that. Those in charge of governance until then were those who had fought for freedom of the country. For them the real issues facing the country were far more important than considerations of caste and religion to grab votes. Persons like Nehru were highly critical of government functionaries even associating with any religious function publicly, let alone using it for mobilising votes. Nehru had publicly criticised the first President of India Rajendra Prasad when he washed the feet of Brahmins in the Kumbh Mela in early fifties.

But deterioration began with mid sixties when towering figures like Nehru were no more on political scene and the first generation of freedom fighters gave way to those ambitious politicians who wanted to capture power at any cost and who had never made any sacrifice for the freedom of the country. They got the power cheap. They were not brought up in the ambience of value based politics. It was in late sixties that persons like S.K.Patil used Bal Thackeray to fight their fictional battles within the Congress. Bal Thackeray who was an unknown cartoonist in an English daily from Bombay was used by these Congress bosses to defeat their rivals. He was encouraged to organise the underground mafia and break strikes and incite raw passions against South Indians and religious minorities to put certain elements in the Congress in their place.

Further sharp deterioration occurred during the emergency in 1975 when Sanjay Gandhi, an ambitious novice in politics who got supreme power on platter from his mother. He used anti-social elements of all sorts to consolidate his power. Even Mrs.Gandhi became his captive. It is Sanjay Gandhi who ruled the roast during emergency. It was then that there was wide ranging discussion in the country about criminalisation of politics. The word ‘criminalisation’ of politics was coined after the emergency. Then it spread like an epidemic. It was quite unusual before that to give ticket to contest election to anyone with criminal record. Then people with accusation of murder and other serious crimes not only fought elections but became even members of the cabinet. The BJP which claimed to be a ‘party with a difference’ and supposedly fighting against corruption also began to harbour hardened criminals. In the BJP cabinet in U.P. there are criminal elements and those with connections with mafia groups.

Not only that the BJP itself incited raw religious passions during the Ramjanambhoomi campaign and won number of seats in Parliament. Its top leaders like L.K. Advani were present when Babri Masjid was pulled down by the fanatically charged Hindu youth. Mr.Advani, Mr.Murli Manohar Joshi and other top leaders of the BJP are also facing charges of being party to demolition of the mosque. If such top politicians are involved in inciting religious fanaticism what can one expect from our democracy? It is bound to affect seriously not only the quality of governance but also the state of law and order in the society. Also, if everyone has dirtied his or her hands in criminalisation of politics, who can succeed in checking this trend? Who can prosecute whom?

Bal Thackeray would have faced legal proceedings in any other country for inciting such raw passions through his editorials. No government worth the name could have avoided the issue so long as to make it time barred. And if it was really time barred why the government did not first apply to the appropriate court to waive off the time limit? Why was it so ill prepared? Or was it all a mere show with mutual collusion? One is reminded here how the decision to throw open the doors of Babri Masjid first at political level was taken by Rajiv Gandhi under the advise of Mr. Arun Nehru and then the judgement was pronounced by the district magistrate that the doors of Babri Masjid be thrown open which gave rise to a serious problem.

The Bal Thackeray was arrested for a few minutes and produced before the magistrate who immediately threw away the case saying it was time barred. One can surmise that perhaps everything was worked out in advance. If the Government of Maharashtra was quite serious about the arrest of Thackeray it should have prepared the case thoroughly well specially in view of the fact that not only it was technically time barred but also the Bombay High Court had earlier dismissed the Public Interest petition filed by J.B.D’Souza (ex-chief secretary, Government of Maharashtra) and others on the basis of these very inflammatory editorials. However, for the reasons best known to the government of Maharashtra, the whole thing was taken up in a very unconvincing and casual manner as if some political ritual was being performed to satisfy the minorities who had greatly suffered during the communal riots of 1992-93.

If the Government of Maharashtra is really serious in the matter it should not only arrest Bal Thackeray without fear of consequences (the government can really control the situation after arrest of Bal Thackeray if it means business) but should also implement in all seriousness the Srikrishna Commission Report which is gathering dust in the government shelves so far. It has not until now even undone the ATR filed by the Shiv Sena-BJP government dubbing the report as ‘biased against the Hindus’. This itself is a highly communal remark which should not be allowed to remain part of Action taken Report of a secular government. Firstly it took so long to complete the inquiry that the Amnesty International Team which visited Bombay in 1994 urged the then Government of Maharashtra to implement its interim report. The government turned deaf ear to this plea by a human rights organisation.

The Srikrishna Commission has indicted 32 police officials and so far not a single officer has been brought to book. One of them ended up as Director-General of Police of Maharashtra and joined the Shiv Sena after his retirement. What confidence such police officers can inspire among the common people. It is, therefore, highly necessary that the Government of Maharashtra immediately implement the Report and bring to book not only Thackeray but all those named by Srikrishna including the police officials. This way it will not only redeem its pledge but also enhance its credibility in the eyes of public.

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Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai.