It's not that this threat was not there earlier. The threat to national unity has always been there since the communal forces began to intensify their activities. However, the threat has magnified manifold during the period since March 1998 when the BJP came to power on the crutches provided by more than 15 parties.

GRAVITY OF COMMUNAL THREAT

The gravity of this threat has to be realised by all those who keep at heart the unity and integrity of our country, and desire to see the emergence of a new India -- vibrant, resilient and prosperous -- out of the mess the BJP-led central government has created during the past 11 months.

The gravity of this threat can be gauged from the fact that there is not a single institution which the communal forces are not trying to infiltrate, not a single sector of socio-economic and political life which they are not striving to communalise. Even before the BJP came to power, at least eight dozen retired army officers had joined it; many retired police officers also opted for it. However, the process of infiltration has gone much ahead during the last 11 months.

The gravity of this threat can be realised from the fact that the BJP is now in control of all the key ministries of the central government, like home and finance, and particularly the human resources development, information and broadcasting, communication, etc, which are concerned with human mind in one way or another.

The gravity of the threat can be comprehended by the way the RSS is trying to inject communal venom into educational curricula and syllabi. This was plain enough at the time the education ministers' conference was held at New Delhi in September 1998, when the government tried to impose an RSS-backed Agenda Paper on Indian education in the name of "nationalising and spiritualising it." The way concocted stories are sought to be taught in the name of history, the way even mathematics textbooks are being rewritten, the way institutions like the Indian Council of Historical Research, Indian Council of Social Science Research, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, etc, have been revamped with staunch RSS adherents, highlights the dangerous possibility that, if the BJP has its way, our education system will only produce a generation of bigots and fanatics, who will have no love lost for a rational and scientific world outlook.

The gravity of the threat can be grasped from the fact that, under the BJP dispensation, the RSS is striving to fit its loyalists in every place of importance. The way openly partisan people have been put in the Raj Bhavans in various state capitals, is in fact only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. If one even cursorily surveys the situation at the grassroots level, a much more horrifying picture is sure to emerge.

The gravity of the communal threat can be understood from the fact that ever since the BJP came to power at the centre, the attacks on minorities have registered a sharp increase, particularly in the BJP-ruled Gujarat but also in some other states. Earlier it was the Muslim community that was the butt of communal attacks in various parts of the country, against which bloody riots were organised now and then. It is not that the Muslims can heave a singh of relief now, as was evident from what recently happened at Baba Budangiri Dargah in Karnataka. But the growing attacks against the minuscule and defenseless Christian minority have added a new dimension to the communal drive of the Sangh Parivar. The way nuns are being raped by the hoodlums of the communal combine or the way a missionary doctor working for treatment and rehabilitation of lepers, Dr Graham Staines, and his two minor sons were burnt alive by a Bajrang Dal crowd in Orissa on January 23 last, shows how much these forces opposed to the nation's unity and integrity have got emboldened during the past 11 months under the BJP dispensation.

COMMUNAL FORCES NOT REPENTANT

Indeed the communal situation has gone from bad to worse in this short span of time, so much so that even the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission on Minorities felt compelled to pass severe strictures against the BJP state governments as well as the central government.

But the communal forces do not feel the need to repent or relent their drive. Despite severe criticism, the Shiv Sena-BJP government has not, to date, tabled the report of the Srikrishna Commission that probed the ghastly Mumbai riots of December 1992 and January 1993 following the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya. Even after the BJP's own allies criticised the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and other constituents of the Sangh Parivar for their unrelenting communal drive and asked the central government, particularly the BJP, to curb their activities, the latter was in no mood to oblige them. Union home minister, L K Advani, went so far as to give a clean chit to the Bajrang Dal, exonerating it from the crime it committed at Manoharpur village in Orissa. Madan Lal Khurana, another RSS stalwart, did admit that the Bajrang Dal was involved in burning Dr Staines and his two sons alive, but he too was forced to fall in line. On the other hand, the RSS mouthpiece Organiser (February 7) felt bold enough to tell the BJP's weak-kneed allies that the VHP, Bajrang Dal, etc, are "independent organisations" and that the BJP and allies have no business to discipline them. Judging by the allies' subsequent silence, it appears that they have preferred to eat humble pie.

This is in fact one of the important components of the present disturbing situation. While the BJP, leading the coalition, has no intention of honouring or abiding by the so-called National Agenda for Governance and is busy implementing what has been widely regarded as its "hidden agenda," the allies are simply watching the unfolding events with folded hands. All the promises made by the BJP's allies in March 1998, to the effect that they would see to it that secular and federal principles are not injured, have remained empty promises so far.

WHAT IS AT STAKE

But this does not mean that the Left, democratic and secular forces, progressive individuals and the patriotic people at large should remain complacent. They do realise that defending the nation's unity and integrity, and no less its economic sovereignty, has acquired a paramount importance today. They do understand that what is at stake is the very pluralistic and composite culture that has given India a distinctive image in the world. Our country is a veritable and colourful mosaic of numerous religions, languages and ethnic groups, diverse costumes, foods and eating habits, and so on, but possessing a unity in this very rich diversity. The British tried to dissolve this very unity in a bid to perpetuate their empire in our country and even succeeded in partitioning it into two parts in August 1947 -- a phenomenon that took an extraordinarily heavy toll in terms of human lives and property, and uprooted millions of people from their hearth and home on both sides of the newly carved out border.

However, it was this very harrowing, chilling experience that made all sane Indians think about how to preserve the unity of the country after independence. It was this very churning that led to incorporation of secularism and federalism in independent India's constitution in 1950. The makers of the constitution did realise that India's unity and integrity cannot be preserved and strengthened by a theocratic state -- a realisation whose correctness came out in sharp relief in 1971-72 when religion failed to keep the two sides of Pakistan united and Bangladesh was born. This is why our constitution-makers accepted secularism as the basis of our political system, along with federalism. Subsequently, the Supreme Court too confirmed that secularism is the basic structure of India's constitution, and defined it as separation of religion from politics. It is only the pseudo-nationalist communal forces who do not accept this definition and call it "pseudo-secularism."

Today, it is this very foundation of India's political system, her composite and pluralistic culture, her syncretic ethos, her very unity, that is at stake because of the depredations of communal forces who are using all sorts of deceit, all methods of penetration, all means of spreading communal venom to destroy our secular edifice. We all have to realise that nothing would remain if our country's unity is broken up -- except an internecine civil war, fratricide, and subjugation to imperialist dictate.

STRONG BASIS OF HOPE

All is not lost, however. We do have a strong basis for the hope that, given determined efforts, our country can get rid of communal depredations and also emerge as a vibrant power in the world arena.

The first and foremost basis of our hope is our people themselves who are secular to the core. Throughout our history spread over millennia, Indian people never allowed a theocratic state to fluorish in this land. At times they have also risen like one man to defend national unity. As is well known, India has a sizeable minority population of not less than 180 millions, more than the total population of many a country. Christianity came to this land in first century AD, much before it spread to many other parts of the world, and found a hospitable climate here. Muslim population in India is more than in any Muslim country except Indonesia. But the rank and file adherents of all religious faiths, all-linguistic and ethnic groups have lived here in peace, in beautiful coexistence, for centuries. They have been participating in one another's festivals and ceremonies, sharing one another's joys and sorrows, and learning from one another in a true spirit of give and take. This is what made India a kaleidoscope in a very real sense. Nay more, this is what constitutes the real guarantee that the anti-national efforts of communal forces would never succeed.

Therefore our people, who have no dearth of patriotic feelings, are not going to tolerate the BJP for long. Already in the assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, held in November 1998, the people have taught a bitter lesson to the communal forces, and are certain to repeat this feat whenever the next occasion arises. Panic has already gripped the Shiv Sena as well as BJP in Maharashtra, which is going to polls in less than a year. Earlier also, when the BJP governments in some states were dismissed for their complicity in Babri Masjid demolition and fresh elections were held there, the BJP suffered defeat and its hopes about encashing the intensified communal passions were dashed to the ground. This happened in Uttar Pradesh as well, where the Babri Masjid was located and where communal passions were most heightened at that time.

ECONOMY IN MESS

Today, our people are also worried about the economic mess into which the BJP government's mismanagement has landed the country. Prices of essentials are shooting up fast -- if it is not onions today, it is the pulses that are going beyond the reach of the common man. By one single stroke, the central government has hiked the prices of rationed rice, wheat and sugar, urea and cooking gas. But not content with all this, the finance minister, belonging to the same BJP, is going on threatening the people that they should hold their breath as he is going to come up with a harsh budget. Does the government think that starving the people to death is the only way to solve the problems facing the country?

At the same time, the BJP government's policies are threatening to enhance industrial sickness, render a large number of workers unemployed, kill the public sector and destroy the self-reliant base of our economy, flood the Indian market with imported goods at the cost of indigenous industries, hand over the financial and other sectors to the multinationals and big business houses, kill even the indigenous seeds industry and take even the life-saving drugs out of the reach of the not-so-well people by carrying out anti-national changes in out patent act. How deeply various sections of the people are feeling the pinch of all these attacks was proved by the December 11 all-India strike, and will be proved again by the protest actions that will take place all over the country on coming February 22 when the parliament's budget session would commence.

It's not that the country has any lack of resources required for all-round development. India has always been known for her richness in resources -- underground or overground. Given suitable pro-people policies and determined measures, our huge population too, second only to China, can be converted into a boon, instead of a bane, which our rulers have always considered it to be. But where such measures are, the people are asking.

One thing has become patently clear -- that the BJP has proved totally inept insofar as handling the country's resources and solving her problems is concerned. Eleven months are not a small time if a government really wants to prove its credentials and demonstrate its intentions. But Advani's claims of ushering into a "fearless society" have made only the traders and blackmarketters fearless -- so fearless that they even killed about six dozen people by adulterating mustard oil.

In fact, it is this all-round and abject failure of the BJP government that eggs on the communal outfits to intensify their nefarious depredations. This is, from their point of view, absolutely necessary to divert the people's attention from their real problems and the government's failure, and to break the toiling people's unity so that they remain helpless victims of the plight the BJP dispensation is imposing on them. This is the real reason behind their game of raising all sorts of distorted bogeys and non-issues.

But yet, there is no doubt that the lustre of the deceitful slogans which the BJP has been raising to dupe the people, is now gone. To our people, it is as clear as daylight that this government is neither pro-swadeshi nor efficient, not even able and stable. Nor is it stainless, as the arrest of dreaded gangster Rajan Tewari from the official residence of Gangaram Koli, a sitting BJP MP, goes to prove. The BJP's own supporters are getting disenchanted in large numbers.

Certainly the people are not going to allow this government to continue once they get an occasion to defeat it. How are they going to bear a government that is readying to mortgage the country's defence by signing the CTBT on the dotted line while keeping the public in dark all the way?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CONVENTION

However, this is no automatic process by any means. The masses do feel discontented, but that discontent requires to be translated into determined action, with a definite direction, in order to smash the threats looming large over the horizon. This is the process, which the coming February 20 convention against communalism intends to start. True this convention has been called to discuss one single issue -- which of communal threat to national unity -- but it does not mean that other issues are not important. It only intends to make the people aware of the most important challenge facing the nation right now.

Of course, it is the Left that took the initiative to call this convention, but it is going to be a broadbased platform to which all the Left, democratic and secular forces, parties, non-party individuals, intellectuals, teachers, artists, journalists, men and women of letters, professionals, experts of law and jurisprudence, and many others are going to rally, irrespective of their differing views on many other issues. It underlines only one thing -- that all other issues have meaning and can be discussed and debated only if the people of the country remain united.