Vishva Hindu Parishad

The Best Bakery case is another example, typical of cases of communal violence and killings, of shoddy and careless investigation with the sole motive to ensure the acquittal of the accused. In his judgment the fast track court judge has passed severe strictures on the quality of the investigation. Against this background there is a strong case for the other cases arising out of the Gujarat communal riots being tried outside Gujarat.

Vishva Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics by Manjari Katju; Orient Longman, Hyderabad, 2003; pp viii + 186, Rs 350.

What is new about Gujarat, it is argued here, is best exemplified by what happened to Muslim women and children on the days of the long knives. Not just their killing, not just the sadism, but the larger symbolic purpose behind the killing and the sadism that sums up the nature of ethnic cleansing, the shape of Hindu Rashtra.

Attempted below is a profile of the 'Hindu terrorist' of Ahmedabad, referred to here as the Ahmedabadi youth. Among middle class semi-educated youth whose expectations and fantasies have been whetted by numerous developments internal and external to the community, rage follows if desires are unfulfilled. Such a situation is fertile ground for the Lie - partial truths, limited truths and untruths skilfully woven into a texture that obscures, misleads and incites - to take root and fester. There are several reasons that might explain why this happens.

The Hindutva movement has made serious attempts to forge a unity among Hindus, without disturbing the relative power relations among the castes. The Sangh parivar, for all its rhetoric on upliftment of the dalits, hardly ever raises a voice against castebased discrimination or atrocities against dalits. This ambivalent attitude has led to considerable disenchantment and confusion among the dalits which is exacerbated during times of tension.