Gujarat: Hindutva Politics and Narendra Modi

Gujarat: Hindutva Politics and Narendra Modi

According to the concerned Citizens Tribunal, the Sangh Parivar undertook a series of preparatory actions in Gujarat prior to 2002.66 Keshubhai Patel came to power as the BJP Chief Minister in 1998. As early as January 02, 1999, Gujarat was identified as a "Hindutva laboratary" as reported by Harish Khare, who argued that the anti-Christian violence of 1999 was indeed organized and carried out by the VHP and the Hindu Jagran Manch (a VHP front organization), contrary to the conclusions of another fact-finding team led by M. B. Kaushal. Khare called attention to the infiltration of the Sangh into the police force, pointing to the transfer of the District Superintendent for registering a complaint against Bajrang Dal members, and the fact that the police force's "lower level postings throughout the state have been allowed by the Keshubhai Patel Government to be vetted by the local Bajrang Dal-VHP functionaries."[67]

On February 14, 1999, a Sangh-controlled "religious parliament," organized by the VHP in Ahmedabad, the city where some of the most extreme anti-Muslim violence took place in 2002, declared "Christianity and Islam as alien religions and therefore against Indian ethos."[68] On February 16, 1999, progressive organizations in Gujarat strongly protested against the Government of Gujarat's census of Christians and Muslims in the state. The census of these religious minority populations included an inventory of telephone numbers and vehicle information, their links with foreign countries and their police records.[69]

The Gujarat Civil Servants Conduct Rules of 1971 prohibits government employees from participating in the activities of certain organizations, which included the RSS and the VHP. On January 04, 2000, then Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, with the support of the BJP national government, unlisted the RSS from this ban, authorizing state government employees to participate in the activities of this organization.[70] In late January 2001, a severe earthquake devastated Gujarat. Various charitable organizations raised money for relief work. Sangh organizations raised substantial funds from abroad[71] for the Gujarat earthquake, and discriminated against religious minorities and lower-caste people in the distribution of the aid.[72]

Between February and April of 2002, incendiary pamphlets were distributed, ranging from encouraging people to participate in anti-constitutional boycotts of Muslim shops and establishments to "exhortations to violence against Muslim women and children that are too shocking to detail." Though most of the circulars were anonymous, the "VHP and Bajrang Dal claimed proud ownership of at least four."[73]

Narendra Modi came to power as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on October 07, 2001. Following the violence of early 2002, Modi embarked on a Gaurav Yatra, or ‘Pride Procession’, to begin a campaign for his re-election. His platform was ‘Gujarati Pride’, and many regarded the Yatra as a celebration of the success of the Sangh in his state. Modi was re-elected as Chief Minister in December 2002.

The BJP-led coalition of political parties at the national level faced defeat in 2004. Although the BJP lost its position as the head of the governing coalition in 2004, it still governs in several states, including Gujarat, where Narendra Modi remains in power, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Uttaranchal, Chhatisgarh, and Orissa. Narendra Modi’s actions in Gujarat have compelled other Hindutva ideologues such as Praveen Togadia, International Secretary of the VHP, to issue a call seeking to bring "Ram Rajya" (rule of Ram, an energizing myth in the discourse of Hindu nation) to other states, such as Orissa.[74] The Sangh's social and cultural organizations continue their work at the local level and infiltrate into institutional structures, continuing to undermine and target cultural, political and religious minorities.