These are great lessons. If ignored we will be condemned indeed. Rohit. From Pokhran to Gujarat > >by Praful Bidwai > >One of the most perceptive comments on the Pokhran-II nuclear >tests, >which occurred this week four years ago, was made by a peace >activist. He said: "They killed Mahatma Gandhi twice - first in >1948, > >and again in 1998." 'They' here clearly referred to the forces >of >Hindutva, which fiercely oppose the Gandhian notions of >tolerance, >secularism, pluralism and nonviolence. > >Fifty-four years ago, these forces were personified by former >RSS >swayamsewak Nathuram Godse, who regarded Gandhi as effete and >effeminate and an appeaser of Muslims and Pakistan. Today, they >are >represented by former pracharak Narendra Modi, and other Hindu >fundamentalists belonging to the BJP, who too regard Gujarat's >Muslims as Pakistan's Fifth Column, who deserve to be killed. > >Is the Pokhran-Gujarat connection far-fetched? Actually, the >links go > >beyond the 1948-1998 analogy. Thus, the VHP's first response to >Pokhran-II was to declare that the Hindus had finally "awakened" >with > >the "Shakti" series of tests, and to demand that India be >formally, >constitutionally, declared a "Hindu State". > >Identically, VHP leader Ashok Singhal now terms Gujarat's pogrom >of >Muslims as signifying, indeed proof of, Hindu "awakening" or >"resurgence". > >Four years ago, the VHP announced it would build a temple to a >new >national goddess, "Atomic Shakti", and carry Pokhran's >radioactive >sands in a rath yatra to each corner of India. Today, it is >reaping >the harvest of the seeds sown by its campaign to build another >illegitimate temple, at Ayodhya, fertilised by kar sewaks who >went >there from Gujarat in their thousands. > >Beyond such analogies lie deeper, causal connections. Gujarat was >a >"Hindutva-only" affair. (That is why the BJP remains totally >isolated > >on its support for the pogrom). Pokhran-II too was a parochial, >'BJP-RSS-only', thing, not a national enterprise. > >The decision to conduct the blasts was not taken in the >cabinet, >following a 'strategic review' or consultations with the >defence >services. As RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan boasted, it was taken by >the >Sangh. Only a handful of RSS-loyal ministers were privy to it. >Indeed, most of our hawkish 'strategic experts' did not >advocate >actual testing. Never known for much independence, they however >duly >fell in line on May 11 and spun out fanciful ex-post >rationalisations. Four years on, these appear hollow and >fraudulent. > >After the 1998 elections, and even before Pokhran-II, the BJP >jealously, doggedly, stuck to its manifesto's promise to >"reevaluate >the country's nuclear policy and exercise the option to induct >nuclear weapons", and imposed it on the NDA's 'National Agenda >for >Governance', which repeated it verbatim. Such repetition occurred >on >only one other issue: constitutional review. > >It is easy to see that Hindutva's obsession with nuclear >weapons >derives from a certain conception of power and prestige, and of >nationalism. This notion of power is quite unrelated to >security, >even conventional military security. > >The BJP-Jan Sangh's half-century-old demand that India should >go >nuclear was made irrespective of the state of India's security >environment at any point. It is driven by a neurotic fascination >with > >nuclearism, the worship of the ability to wreak limitless >vengeance >and bludgeon the adversary into submission - by threatening >mass >destruction. Power here is equated with the ability to cause >mortal >fear, not evoke respect. > >This conception is morally perverse. It makes nonsense of the >ethics >of just war, including non-combatant immunity, proportionality in >the > >use of force, and avoidance of cruel, degrading and inhuman >methods. > >One can embrace nuclearism with BJP-style enthusiasm only by >erasing >all distinctions between soldiers and civilians, measured (or >well-targeted) and indiscriminate force, and just and barbaric >methods of warfare. How else can one justify incinerating >millions of > >people, flattening whole cities at one go, or extensively >poisoning >land, air and water with long-acting toxins (some with half-lives >of >millions of years), or inflicting chromosomal damage upon scores >of >as-yet-unborn generations? > >It is also relevant to ask how one can justify, as Hindutva does, >the > >slitting of wombs to destroy foetuses, spearing little babies >to >death, burning alive old people, and savaging and quartering >women's >bodies. That is precisely what happened in the Gujarat >massacre, >which the BJP and its associates organised and executed with >full >State complicity. > >When you 'normalise' Genghis Khan-level barbarism as the >"natural" >logic of action-and-reaction, when you plot the butchery of >innocent >citizens because 'they', some members of that false collectivity, >did > >a Godhra to 'us', when you malign Muslims as people incapable >of >living with others, when you demonise and dehumanise a whole >community, you follow the same logic as nuclearism does. > >Common to both is the legitimation of genocidal destruction, of >a >break in the chain of being, of unlimited punishment >disproportionate > >to the threat/crime. Rationalising a pogrom or worshipping >nuclear >weapons means banalising evil. Both celebrate revenge and >savagery >bordering on genocide. > >The BJP's conception of nationhood involves a warped notion of >grandeur based on the congruence of pitrabhoomi and punyabhoomi, >and >privileging of one ethnic-religious group. Central to it is >exclusion, coercion and violence, as well as false glorification >of >India's past. Hindu nationalism is just as incompatible with >the >Constitution and universal rights as Islamic or Zionist >fundamentalism. > >The bomb serves this idea of nationhood ideally. Nuclearism >denies >the possibility of drawing upon humane values and life-affirming >or >cooperative attitudes. This mindset promotes what are >conventionally >known as 'masculine' values: lack of compassion, eagerness to >retaliate, violence, and brutality. No wonder, Hindutva has a >compulsive and obsessive fascination with 'manhood' and >'virility'. >This has nowhere been more evident than in Gujarat. > >Central to this muscular, male-supremacist, virulent nationalism >is >the idea of 'sacrifice' and 'martyrdom' - in the cause of mass >destruction. The first South Asian leader who said, "we'll eat >grass, > >but we'll have the bomb", was not Bhutto. It was Atal Bihari >Vajpayee, way back in the Sixties - with a variation: eating >one >chapati in place of two, rather than grass. > >Needless to say, the leaders who pledge such sacrifices on behalf >of >the people never end up eating grass themselves. They merely >prepare >the ground for profoundly irrational, hysterical ways of >conceptualising security - by severing the people from the >nation. > >The causal chain that links Pokhran to Gujarat is unmistakable. >The >first mindset evolves seamlessly into the second. If Gujarat >has >inflicted unconscionable damage upon India's constitutional order >and > >its claim to pluralism, nuclear weapons have grotesquely >perverted >our social and economic priorities, promoted crude >Social-Darwinist >ideas of "survival of the fittest", legitimised unbounded cruelty >- >and degraded India's security. > >Nothing illustrates this better than today's India-Pakistan >military >standoff, born of reckless brinkmanship, aggravated by a >cynical >'Wag-the-Dog' calculus, and further compounded by the >condemnable >Jammu massacre. There is now a likelihood of "limited" strikes >rapidly escalating into a nuclear standoff. > >More than a billion innocent, unarmed civilians in South Asia >have >now become hostage to mass-destruction weapons against which >there >is, can be, no defence. Four years after Pokhran-II - and the >Chagai >tests it provoked - the nuclear balance sheet looks ugly. >Nuclearisation has had a disastrous social, economic, political >and >foreign policy impact. This will worsen as India bankrupts >itself, >our social services collapse, and the State fails, while the >people >become insecure, as in Gujarat. > >We could not have made a worse Faustian bargain.
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