K.N.Panikkar on UPA's Soft communalist agenda

Elaborating further on the theoretical analysis of Hindutva as fascism, noted historian K.N.Panikkar spoke about how the Hindutva agenda is now being advanced not so much by communal riots, as in the past, but by what he termed as 'organized attacks on Muslims and Christians, amounting to genocide', often in complicity with agents of the state. Earlier, he said, communal riots were largely localized affairs, but now these organized attacks are happening simultaneously in different parts of the country, particularly in states ruled by the BJP or by coalitions in which the BJP is a major partner. In other words, he said, 'There is a convergence between the state and Hindutva fascist organizations since the state promotes or allows these attacks'.

These well-planned attacks on Muslims and Christians, Prof. Panikkar pointed out, are characterized by far greater brutality than previously, and no effective action is taken against their perpetrators, whether by the Central or state governments. He indicated that although the present Government in the Centre had come to power on what it had touted as a 'secular' platform, it has taken no effective action against Hindutva terrorism. In this way, he argued, 'There is no fundamental difference between the present UPA Government and the previous BJP-dominated NDA Government vis-à-vis fascism. The only distinction is that while the latter was aggressively communal, the former appears passively communal. But both allow and create spaces for fascism to advance'. In the last four years of Congress-led rule, he noted, groups like the RSS, the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and their allied social and cultural outfits have made rapid inroads across the country, 'so much so that today there is hardly a village in India where they do not operate'. He also argued that many of the terror attacks and bomb blasts that have occurred in India in recent years might have been orchestrated by Hindutva groups in order to justify attacks on Muslims and Christians, whip up Hindu sentiments and thereby consolidate their vote-bank.