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Right-wing Hindus put PM under pressure

George Iype in New Delhi

The murder of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Stains and his two sons in Orissa has left Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in a quandary as most of his alliance partners and religious minority groups are pressurising him to ban organisations like the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

In an attempt to ward off criticism that those involved in the torching of the foreign missionary and his sons have the patronage of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the prime minister and the BJP leadership have launched a damage control exercise.

While Vajpayee promised stern action against the culprits, the BJP leadership decided today to send a party team to Orissa to study the incident.

But pressure is building up on the prime minister either to ban the saffron organisations or to take action against them as his assertiveness against the Sangh Parivar and his promises to protect the Christian community seem to be having little effect.

On Monday, some of his allies turned harsher on Vajpayee. Condemning the incident, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham general secretary J Jayalalitha said a group of "new terrorists" are now seeking to destroy the very essence of India.

Other partners like the Samata Party, Biju Janata Dal and Haryana Lok Dal are expected to meet soon to send a warning to Vajpayee and the BJP leadership: that anti-minority attacks since the government came to power last year have humiliated the country internationally. The Telugu Desam Party, which has stated that the BJP has lost the moral right to rule, is also expected to join the pressure group against the government.

Trinamul Congress leader Sudip Bandopadhya said the alliance partners have agreed to demand an immediate ban on fundamentalist Hindu organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal. "The government's image is at stake nationally and internationally because these organisations have been committing the worst-possible crimes against Christians," he told Rediff On The NeT.

"Everyone knows these outfits are part of the Sangh Parivar. We want the prime minister either to ban these groups or to disown them," the Trinamul leader stated.

But many believe the insistence from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP leaders that conversion in tribal areas is the cause of the violence against Christians has trapped Vajpayee.

"Vajpayee is a discredited hero. He has been unable to take stern action against VHP-Bajrang Dal leaders because he is neither in the RSS camp nor has the courage to call a spade a spade," P J Kurien, the Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, told Rediff On The NeT.

The prime minister's problems stem from the fact that though he very much wants to dissociate himself from the Sangh Parivar affiliates, neither the RSS nor the BJP leadership will allow him to do so.

That is why, a BJP leader pointed out, the prime minister and Home Minister L K Advani have refused to pinpoint the blame for the burning of the missionary and his sons on the Bajrang Dal despite the state police's statement that Dal activists are behind the dastardly act.

"Though the prime minister is being pressurised to ban some Sangh organisations, we do not think the government would take such a decision given our relations with each other," the BJP leader said.

But as pressure from within the coalition and outside mounts, many feel the VHP-Bajrang Dal's anti-Christian campaign has put Vajpayee in a web of problems, which is compounded by President K R Narayanan, who has indirectly attacked the BJP government twice in the past 25 days.

While on Sunday he termed the killing of the missionary and his two young sons as "a monumental aberration," the President had altered his New Year message on January 1 following reports of anti-Christian attacks in Gujarat.

On the other side is the near diplomatic crisis into which the anti-Christian attacks and the torching of the missionary has dragged the Vajpayee government into.

Officials said the President is "deeply worried" that the continued atrocities against minority religious communities and the inaction from the government gives out the impression that the Vajpayee coalition is unable to take any decisions because of political instability.

Informally, many Western diplomats are expected to discuss the issue with the prime minister and his ministers when they all would attend President Narayanan's Republic Day get-together at Rashtrapathi Bhavan on Tuesday.

The prime minister has already held a series of meetings with his diplomatic advisors and the External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh on the international fall-out of the anti-Christian violence. But what worries top officials is how Vajpayee would explain the spate of incidents under the BJP government to the many foreign leaders whom he will meet during the G-15 summit in early February.

The government has been planning the prime minister's first foreign trip in the New Year to sell India as a top, attractive investment destination.

But many believe the Hindu extremists' decision to unleash violence against Christians could force the prime minister to emphasise more on his secular commitment rather than showcasing India as a investment paradise.

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