Certain platitudes need to be restated now that the Indian political scene has become murky. Liberty should not be synonymous with licence. Hate speech does not signify freedom of speech. The BJP which is now almost an appendage of the RSS has suddenly turned to cultural and ethnic cleansing. Minister of State for HRD, Ram Shankar Katheriya attended a VHP meeting held to condole the murder of a VHP activist in Agra. A number of VHP speakers called Muslims demons and wanted them cornered. Katheriya said that his official position did not stand in the way of hitting the street in support. His exoneration later that he did not name any community satisfied the BJP. It was no doubt sheer eyewash.
The VHP speakers threatened to turn Agra into a Muzaffarabad where anti-Muslim riots had erupted in 2014. The present stand is no doubt a declaration of murderer’s intent. The BJP cannot explain away the attendance of one of it’s Ministers at a meeting of the VHP, a-fringe organisation of the Sangh Parivar. Praveen Togadia and Ashok Singhal have spewed enough communal hatred to call for the banning of the party. Emboldened by the tacit support of the BJP, the VHP plans to inflame communal passions in the last part of UP on the eve of the assembly of elections. The BJP high command must prevent its UP leaders from falling in line with VHP Hindutva extremists. The defeat in Bihar should chasten it, needless to say that such anti-Muslim abuse is not good for healthy economic growth in a major state like UP.
