Raw’s Role in Gujarat Polls
The Indian secret agency RAW played an important role for the victory of Hindu extremist BJP win in the Gujarat elections by doling out millions to the Hindu fascist politicians and media to structure the behavior of the opinion makers and other target audience. Polices, pledges and performance of the ruling party play a key role to influence people and convince them to vote for them in an electoral contest. In order to re-win, the party in power has to perform well for the good of the people. Conversely when the pledges prove fake and assurances become fraud, the people repose their trust in alternate political leadership.
This is how the real democracy works. In Gujarat the performance of the BJP government did no merit them even a marginal win in the elections, the performance of the government was miserable and shameful. The cabinet was in the hands of selfish and corrupt leaders working for self-promotion through fair and foul means, but failing to check the miseries of common people.
They did not pay attention to the record GDP decline, falling investment, widespread unemployment , and rampant corruption in the state. The people of Gujarat knew that the Government has done nothing to improve their lot and provide security. The law and order situation in the state touched the lowest levels. Thus the ruling party was absolutely sure of its defeat in the elections as it did in other states.
The top BJP leadership worked out an indirect approach to remain in power, through hidden hands of RAW. This Indian secret agency is so structured that it can create an event, at any cost, pose questions about it and suggest answers to affect change in attitude and behavior of the opinion makers and the rest of the society. BJP leadership assigned the task of winning elections in Gujarat to RAW. This secret Indian agency has a history of committing terrorist acts in Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and other parts of South Asia. RAW worked out a strategy based on old theme that ‘Hindus hate Muslims’.
In Jammu and Kashmir RAW had been ruthlessly and cold bloodedly slaughtering Hindu/Sikh families through a planned campaign, shifting the blame on Pakistan and branding the Indian Muslims as agents of Pakistan. Having known the extent and intensity of injured feeling of Muslims on desecration and sacrilege of Babri Mosque and organized worship by Hindu extremists there, RAW saw an opportunity to create an event of high magnitude, at Godhra railway station, suggesting to the public that the Muslims had planned the incident. The event went as planned and the blame fell as desired.
The intriguing RAW was free to use Godhra train incident to ignite anti-Muslim sentiment among the Hindu populace of Gujarat. The die was cast for the carnival of Muslims bloodshed to reap the fruits of acrimony of Hindutva and hate ignited between Hindus and Muslims. The psychological activity planned and conducted by RAW in Gujarat successfully met all the objectives. BJP was recommended by RAW to base its election campaign on Godhra, using the Hindutva slogan to pursue and convince Hindus to vote for the BJP. Muslims were branded as traitors and agents of Pakistan and success of BJP was played as defeat for Pakistan.
The names of Pakistan and General Pervez Musharraf were used as part of their slogans to ignite the emotions of already charged Hindus. Over two thousand Muslims lost their lives and unaccountable loss was inflicted to their property. Muslims as Indian nationals were forced to flee their homes in relatively safer areas but the campaign brought success to the Hindutva. The Hindu fundamentalists and BJP celebrated the election victory in Gujarat while RAW regarded as the covert celebrity deserving all the credit. BJP government intends to use Gujarat model for the future election campaigns in other states as well.
The trend is based on exploiting the emotions of people, dividing them on the basis of hate and abhorrence. RAW has used its intelligence mindset maintaining coercion as an operational procedure to ensure that the task (victory in Gujarat election) assigned to them is successfully completed. BJP and the top Indian leadership must realize that hate is a very strong emotion and dividing people through hate for victory in election is not only selfish but also extremely dangerous for the Indian unity. The trend, if allowed to go unchecked, shall bring fascism in Indian polity.
By M. Anwar
The Nation, Lahore Pakistan
February 7, 2003
