Bangalore : The Indians are past masters in making an issue out of a non-issue. And one such non issue, which is rocking the whole country, its “national Press’, its people excited, is the tallow that has become the talk of the town. A Hindu ( Jain) businessman mixed beef tallow in his vegetable ghee (vanaspati). Adulteration of food (even poison) is nothing new to India. But what brought front page headlines was such an adulteration had hurt the “religious sentiment” of the non-violent Hindu to whom cow was equal to his mother. The cow was held in such high esteem that even old rotten animals were prohibited from being slaughtered. Hundreds of Muslims were killed in Ahmedabad to save a cow. The cow-lovers whipped up the frenzy and as Mrs. Indira Gandhi was preparing for a Parliament election to bolster her sagging image, the Hindu Nazis thought that beef tallow would be the deadliest stick to beat her with. Mrs. Gandhi who since a few years was markedly becoming pro Hindu and kicked up quite a lot of Hindu dust creating almost a Hindu ghost, was now becoming the very victim of the ghost she · had so fondly created. The Indian Press reported her telling a Hindu conference at Ajmer in the first week of Nov. that Hindu religion was in danger. This was perhaps the first time that the Prime Minister of India openly spoke on behalf of the country’s majority religion. No doubt every PM belonged only to the Hindu religion but so far none acted as a Hindu leader. When she said Hindu religion was in danger it meant that other religions Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism were endangering it. It was for flirting with Hindu communal forces that the RSS Hindu Nazis gave her a good conduct certificate saying she was a better Hindu than Vajpayee, the chief of the BJP, the political arm of the RSS. Her opening a Hindu temple built by the RSS at Hardwar in the company of the Nazi Party chief, Leora’s, her offering prayers at different temples and prostrating before Brahmin religious leaders had very much pleased the orthodoxy. That was how more & more Hindus were shifting their loyalty to her party. This became evident in all the recent elections. And when it paid her political dividends, she rightly thought that her tactics of becoming a Hindu leader had succeeded. The Muslims (15%), Christians (less than 3%) put together formed less than 18%. Dalits, though forming 30 percent, could be bought over and many of them were under the illusion of Hinduism. So, she rightly thought that her pro Hindu tilt paid her a rich bonus.
Just as she was basking in the Hindu shunshine, she was struck down by the tallow controversy. And at the time of writing this Mrs. Gandhi was in a terribly confused state franatically trying to be saved from the tallow taibot chasing her. Beef eating was not new to India (DV Nov. 16) and in fact during the Vedic period cow was reserved for the Brahmin stomach. The Rig Veda and the Brihadaranayak Upanished, and the Brahamanas said beef was the exclusive food of the Brahmins. It was Mahatma” Gandhi who unleashed the cow mania by declaring “that the central fact of Hinduism is cow protection” .. (Young India, Oct. 6, 1921). But this “Mahatma”, who did so much for Hinduism and its holy cow, was finally shot dead by a Hindu Nazi, Nathuram Godse, denouncing the “Mahatma” as anti-Hindu (Why Godse killed Gandhi ? DSA publication no. 7- 1983). Gandhi created the Hindu ghost which finally devoured him. Would history repeat ?
Like her father, Mrs. Gandhi was initially treading a “secular” ground though the Dalits and minorities had never trusted her secularism. In every recent election they expressed their protest by voting against her party. When her “vote banks”, the Dalits and Muslims, deserted her she realised that blood was thicker than water.
The RSS policy of whipping up Hindu communalism against the Dalits and persecuted minorities would fetch her more votes. And with full confidence she was preparing for the election. Right then she suffered this tallow stroke. And she was seen sinking. It was a Hindu back- lash to which she would have to give her neck. Her best efforts to mobilise the Brahmin leaders in her party did not pay. She got hold of one lone Shankaracharya and made him condemn this tallow controversy but at this moment RSS seemed to be riding the waves. All other Brahmin leaders were with RSS. And this might force her to rethink on the elections un- less she diverted the country’s attention by raising the bogey of Pakistani aggression on India. Right now that appeared to be her only hope and the speeches of different leaders indicated that she was manufacturing a situation of external danger to India. Zia, equally in trouble with the Movement to Restore Democracy (MRD) in Pakistan, were to oblige both might enter into a secret pact of a week-long stage-managed war which would do good to both. Right now this was the only hope for Mrs. Gandhi.
As a shrewd politician, Jagjivan Ram, wanted to throw a stone at the drowning Mrs. Gandhi. He issued a statement supporting RSS and putting the blame on her for the tallow import. According to Left and even Dalit political leaders she was the only impediment to any solution to India’s problem. Hence a total political chaos in India. Every party, including the two communist parties, had become irrelevant. Almost everybody was waiting for the exit of Mrs. Gandhi from the political scene. If the tallow could throw her out why not back the tallow controversy, Ram was reported to have told his confidants. But Mrs. Gandhi being a more shrewd politician and one up in the job of making an issue out of a non-issue might pull the carpet under the feet of RSS and start a “war”.
Be that as it may, India today presents a picture of utter confusion all-round. And in this fight of unscrupulous politicians aided by the capitalist-owned, upper caste-managed “national Press”, the Dalits and persecuted minorities are being trampled upon.
