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Vol 2 No.8
New Delhi, 20 April- 4 May 1987
Fortnightly
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A Faltering Second Fro~t
in Punjab
NEWSHOUND
By Ra p
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Extremist Campaign fizzling out
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Satindra Singh At present, Punjab enjoys bout a fortnight ago, Sikh 1ft ' fundamentalists opened the dubious distinction of lead~'=another from in Punjab ing the country in the per to strengthen their support capita consumption of liquor. If base. They have launched an the '· . anti-liquor campaign aggressive and systematic cam- gathers further mom ent,um, it ' paign against what they call may well prove disastrous for "accretion of the evil Hindu the state for two main reasons . practices in the Sikh way of One, it will result in the relife." On the face of it, their emergence of illicit brewing of crusade against drinking, meat hooch for which Punjab was eating, ostentatious marriages, once deservedly notorious use of cosmetics by Sikh throughout the country until women and ' trimming of hair the e nd of the sixties, To e radiand beards by Sikh males is cate this evil the then chief more or less unobjectionable. minister, Mr Pratap Singh But the same cannot be said Kairon, not only ordered' the about the motives behind their opening of more liquor vends, move as well as its ramifica- but also reduced the price of tions. country liquor, to save Punjabis I Take, for instance, their from spurious liquor. His "war" against drinking. No shrewd policy has been sc rudoubt, the Sikh fundamen- pulously adhered to by aU suc talists enjoy scriptural support cessive governments in the ) . it. But their primary objec- state, whatever their political ~ .. e is to adversely affect the affiliations. The other reason Barnala . government s already \ which has even more dreadful strained financial resources. implications - is that nonThere were not many takers availability of liquor, win surely of the liqu9r vends when these result in a phenomenal growth of were auctioned late last month drug consumption. Opium and and most of those who had the hemp eating is already ramcourage to, bid for these have pant in the Doaba and Malwa been ' forced to offer only regions of the state. limited supplies. During my Moreover, forcible converrecent visit to some of the sion in any form runs counter towns of PUbjab and their sur- not only to the basic Sikh rounding villages I noticed that tenets, but also against the most of the liquor vends were heroic Sikh heritage. The Sikh half empty and only a few po~ Gurus did not believe in proular brands of whisky, rum, gin selytising by sword but through and beer were readily avail- persuasion, They fought agaable. For other brands one had inst those Muslim rulers who to place an advance order, tried to , enforce Islamic fundeposit earnest money and damentalism by the sword. pick up the stuff at an agreed Two of the Sikh Gurus - Arjun time. Dev and Tegh Bahadur - had to lay down their lives in the Supportj~mong struggle to .ensure an individual's right to follow his/her Women for Antiown conscience. Both Bhai Liquor Campaign Nand Lal, the most prominent codifier of Sikh heliefs and There is no doubt that their anti-liquor campaign has won practices and Kaura Mal, a the Sikh fundamentalists instant highly respect~d personage in support and sympathy from Sikh history were not ':Amrit Sikh women, who, much to dharis" (baptised SinghsJ. their mortification, daily witMeat Eating ness the heart-rending scene of the hard-earned money literally the "going down the drain" as it Fundamentalists were since the advent of the The Sikh fundamentalists Green Revolution in the state in are on even more vulnerable . the late seventies. Whether the Sikh women's support will help ground for their move against reduce drinking among their meat eating. For one, no Sikh Guru has prohibited its conmenfolk is difficult to surmise. sumption. Only the other day, Habits die hard, bad habits seldom, if ever. Continued on page 13, c~/1
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RA.JI~ HIMSI=t..F SAID 50 I
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CONG-I CAUSING DIS·C ORD · IN U. P.
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By r\k hil Anand
The communal hysteria being w orked up in Ayodhya in particular an(t1 Uttar Pradesh in general, over the issue of Ram Janambhoomi and Babr! Masjid is heading for a large-scale massacre of MusJims in Ayodhya This stark destiny is not unknown to the parties involved: the state government, Hindu and Muslim communal leaders and also a sizeable sectio n of the ruling Congress (I). In fact, they all seem to be callously unconcern ed about the dangers inherent in the situation. While the state government treats the issue as one of law and ord er alone, both Hindu and Muslim leaders connected with the Ra ni Janambhoomi Mukti Vagna Samiti and the Babri Masjid Action Com mitee respectively, put fOIWard the' argument that one or the other temple or mosque does not matter, but it is the place which is of emotional significance, and claims to it cannot be given up.
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The ruling Congre ss (I) has contributed to this high dra m a in a typically 'Indira style' by providing general secretaries to both the warring committees. While Dau Dayal Khanna, a former UP Minister and Congress (I) leader is the gene ral secretary of the Samiti, Chaudhary Mohd Muzaffar Hussain Ka chhauchwi, a form e r legislator and Congress leader is the general secre tary of th e Committee. Referring to this situation Mohd Hashim Ansari, secretary of Anjuman Mohafiz, Mazabir Masjid Awadha says: "WE are face to face with the state government on the issue of Babri Masjid. The government
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is mad afte r the majority. At last the stage would be ours. We will do everything to protect ourselves; even that which should not be done." Th ere is no hiding of the fact tha t while saying this he appears scared a nd there are e nough reasons for him to be fe aff ul 'of the future. Ror th e Ra m Ja na m bhoo mi move m e nt is be ing built a ro und the prem ise that no n-Hindus, obviously Muslims, h ave no place in Ayodhya , M L1slim s in this tow n number less than pn e thousand, as aga inst a Hindu population of 70,000. In view of the state go ve rnment's poor recOl'd 'in protecting minorities' in a series of riots in the last
decades, Muslims don 't pI a!.,; muc h fa ith on the enfOrCem p.ll f age ncie s for th e ir protect jon.
Point of No Return That the issue ha s reached fI point of n o f'e turn becom e:; obvious by the rem Mks of Ma hant Avedya na th, 'ch airman of th e Ram Jana mbhooll1i Mukti Yagna Samit i in Gora khpur. The mahallt hn lieves "th e Hin dus must unit" in d efe nce of their rights ;!,,(/ forc e the government to r eaL ,.~ their agon y concerning Ha m 's birthplace , Hindus wo uld nfl' tolerate any un just decisioil nn the i ssu ~. Th e so-caHed 5.1 hn Continued on page 5 , col 1
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