AHMEDABAD/ NEW DELHI, 18 November 2002 — What was feared to become a communal bomb turned out to be a bubble laced with rhetoric that failed to ignite the “Hindu” passion as the much-talked about Hindu hard-liners’ rally here proved to be non-starter.
In what seemed like a well-scripted drama, top leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Pravin Togadia and Acharya Dharmendra were arrested here yesterday as they ostensibly set out to the tense town of Godhra to take out a banned religious rally. Police also arrested about 350 VHP activists. “The situation is calm, there is no report of any incident,” a police officer said.
Acharya Dharmendra, Togadia and some activists of the VHP, however, did offer prayers at the Somnath temple in the eastern neighborhood of Bapunagar here before the police swooped on them.
The VHP leaders, who had threatened to take out the proposed march from Godhra come what may, meekly allowed the police to arrest them as they pretended to set off for that small town, about 150 km away.
They were taken to the Gujarat police headquarters. Later, Togadia and Acharya Dharmendra, were freed on bail. “But they will be charged with violating the government orders that prevented religious procession and assembling in large numbers in violation of prohibitory orders,” said a police officer.
The Election Commission, fearing fresh communal violence in the state that goes to polls on Dec. 12, had asked the government to ban all religious processions.
Gujarat witnessed terrible communal violence this year that claimed over 1,000 lives, mostly Muslims.
The VHP had threatened to take out yesterday a rally from Godhra, where 58 train passengers were burned to death in February, triggering off the communal violence in the state. Most of the dead in the train carnage were VHP activists. The rally was to culminate in Ahmedabad on Dec. 6 to mark the 10th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, whose Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is closely linked to VHP, had advised the latter not to take out the rally and advised it to respect the fiat of the Election Commission.
“I don’t think the VHP should take out its rally ignoring the Election Commission’s ban,” Vajpayee said in New Delhi, effectively putting a lid on the VHP plans. Earlier yesterday, VHP leaders performed prayers at the Somnath temple amid scuffles between its workers and the police.
Acharya Dharmendra and Togadia arrived at the venue at 10.30 a.m., about 90 minutes behind schedule.
Although the VHP had claimed it was performing a religious duty, it was clear the entire affair had political overtones. “We have deleted Vajpayee from the screen of our hearts,” Dharmendra thundered, addressing the gathering of a few hundred VHP workers at the temple. “We don’t need a defensive prime minister, we need a proud prime minister,” he added, referring to Vajpayee’s comment that he would campaign for the ruling BJP in Gujarat if he was invited to.
Dharmendra also lashed out at Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh, charging him with anti-Hindu bias.
Ridiculing the massive security arrangements around the temple, he said: “Prayers and people assembled here do not need police protection. These security forces are needed to protect the country from terrorists and (Pakistan President) Pervez Musharraf’s secret agents.”
A few hundred VHP workers assembled at the temple in the morning despite prohibitory orders. The police drove away about 50 of them when they managed to sneak into the temple. Some of them, including seven women, were detained.
However, they again assembled shortly before Dharmendra and Togadia reached the temple.
While the situation was tense at the temple, the city remained peaceful. Residents went about their routines business as usual.
Even Bapunagar neighborhood remained peaceful. Most people hardly seemed to be bothered by the scuffles between VHP workers and police.
A VHP leader tried to blame Lyngdoh for yesterday’s fiasco of the VHP rally.
“We don’t blame the police, they are only acting on the Election Commission directive. Lyngdoh alone is responsible for the problem,” said VHP Joint General Secretary Jaideep Patel.
