25 years after Babri Masjid’s demolition, Moditva takes over from Hindutva

December 6, 1992––the day Babri Masjid was demolished––epitomises the peak of the Hindutva movement. Exactly 25 years later, Moditva is reigning supreme in the country.

But then, what is the difference between the two ‘ideologies’?

Hindutva was adopted by the BJP, then headed by Lal Krishna Advani, in the late 1980s. It was launched when the saffron party was in the opposition.

Advani set off for a Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya on September 25, 1990, but it had to be abruptly called off when the then Lalu Prasad Yadav government in Bihar arrested him on October 23.

Two years later, he did succeed in whipping up similar passions which ultimately led to the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6.

This was followed by large-scale communal riots in various parts of India, especially Mumbai and Surat. On March 12, 1993, Mumbai was rocked by serial blasts leading to the death of over 250 people. Thus started a new type of terrorist activity not heard of in India before. The nature of Sikh and Kashmiri terrorism is somewhat different as they are separatist in nature.

But when six years after the demolition of Babri Masjid, the BJP came to power in the Centre, it was somewhat a different party. It started adopting the soft Hindutva line, sometimes even softer than the Congress.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and not Advani, became the Prime Minister and the NDA rule started appearing more responsible. The country got a stable government after two years of instability between 1996 and 1998, when two prime ministers, namely HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral, ruled.

Incidentally, Moditva started emerging at the high time of the Vajpayee era. Its origin can be traced to the Gujarat riots days in February–March 2002. That was the time when the then PM Vajpayee called upon then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to follow ‘Raj Dharma’.

Thus Hindutva, as an ideology, was actually practised between 1988 and 1998. By the time, the BJP came to power, it started adopting a much softer line.

So, in a nutshell, Hindutva translated into taking extreme positions while in opposition, but behaving responsibly once in power.

Moditva is somewhat a different philosophy. Here there is no dilution of stand. Here an opposition party (read BJP) is not charged with inciting riots; in contrast the ruling party is accused of presiding over communal violence.

It is not only this much. The followers of Moditva are not at all apologetic––unlike Raj Dharma utterance by Vajpayee––but claim that they are actually development-minded.

The NDA lost the 2004 parliamentary election because there was a tussle between Hindutva and Moditva lines. Hindutva got further weakened when on June 4, 2005, Advani, though out of power, saluted the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and called him secular. He said so just two days after he, while on a visit to Pakistan, called Partition as “an unalterable reality of history”.

This came as a shock to the Sangh Parivar as many of its leaders and cadres thought that, once out of power, the BJP would fall back on the hardline approach. But that was not to be.

This paved the way for further consolidation of Moditva.

Though Advani led one of the biggest movements of the recent times, yet his Hindutva lacked much penetration. The implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations suddenly weakened the Mandir movement at its height, especially in the northern Indian states of UP and Bihar.

Quarter of a century later, the forces of Moditva, at least for now, appear much more confident. They have learnt from the mistakes committed by the champions of Hindutva who are now cooling their heels in Marg Darshak Mandal.