DECEMBER 6 marks the anniversary of the dark deed of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Thirty four years ago the RSS-Hindutva hordes struck a severe blow at the secular-democratic character of the Indian republic by bringing down the Babri Masjid. By this single act they challenged the constitution and declared their intention to dismantle the democratic and secular framework put in place by the constitution.

It is no co-incidence that the Babri Masjid was demolished by the Sangh Parivar on the 6th of December of l992. The 6th of December is commemorated all over the country as the day that the architect of the constitution of India, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar passed away in 1956. On this day, lakhs of people, many of them dalits, flock to the beach at Dadar, Mumbai to pay homage to the place where his ashes were scattered.

The fact that this was the day chosen by the Sangh Parivar for the demolition of the mosque is in complete consonance with the contempt and deep-felt hostility that the constitution of India has always aroused in the hearts and minds of members of first the RSS and, subsequently, members of the many organisations that it fostered including the BJP, its political wing. Those who subscribed to the shared ideology of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, Hindutva, were vociferous in their condemnation of Dr Ambedkar and the changes he tried to bring about in the unjust and unequal Hindu laws. When the constitution that he as chairman of the Constitution Committee placed before the Constituent Assembly was finally passed, the RSS lost no time in condemning it and claiming that the only law or dharmashastra that they accepted was the Law of Manu.

It was the mobilisation behind the Ram temple campaign that propelled the BJP to power in several states and at the centre in 1998. The Vajpayee government at that time did all it could to infiltrate the RSS in the public institutions of the State, to rewrite history on the basis of a Hindutva ideology and to create communal polarisation based on its divisive agenda.

A decade later, the Modi government came to power with a majority in the Lok Sabha. With this assumption to power the process of advancing the communal agenda has been accelerated. Institutions of higher education and research are being infiltrated with the Hindutva ideology; there are vicious targeted attacks against the minorities in the garb of ‘ghar vapsi’, `love jihad’, ‘gau raksha’ and stigmatising them as terrorist and anti-national elements. There is an authoritarian assault on democratic rights and the right to dissent is being ruthlessly suppressed. There is a determined attempt to interfere with judicial appointments and the freedom of the press is being seriously curtailed. The federal structure of the State is also under attack.

The assault on the Babri Masjid was thus the beginning of a long drawn war against secular and democratic India. So December 6 must be observed as a day of warning to be vigilant. It must be an occasion to reiterate our resolve to resist this authoritarian-communal offensive with all our might by uniting the widest sections of the people.  This can be accomplished by building class and mass struggles against the twin offensive of neo-liberalism and divisive communalism. 

(November 29, 2016)