A week before the Gujarat pogrom, I had written an ‘open’ letter to the then prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was not published by whoever I sent it to and then, of course, events overtook such minor aberrations. In the current context, perhaps the letter may show the man behind the mask.
Dear Prime Minister,
The Hindu this morning quotes you as having said at a public meeting in Varanasi yesterday that the BJP would win the elections even if the Muslims voted against it.
As The Hindu is the only paper to which I subscribe regularly, I had to wait till the evening to be able to check on the internet if any other paper had carried it. I couldn’t find any such reference, but there were reports on a television channel on a barrage of protests against your reported remark. This could be usual politics. But what did more or less conclusively prove that you had said something on those lines was the statement of the PMO that you had been quoted out of context and that the remark had not been carried by the media.
I address this public letter to you as a citizen deeply concerned about the implications of your statement.
First, Prime Minister, let us get some irrelevances out of the way. The words you uttered are not crucial, the message is. Did you or did you not indicate that the votes of a particular segment of the society was not a factor in the electoral victory of the party to which you belong? If so, even if you are right in your mathematical calculations, what is the message that you, as a prime minister, are sending out? It does not require a man of your sensitivity and wisdom to apprehend what chasms such an attitude could create between the many diverse components of the great nation you have the privilege today of leading through difficult times, or what insecurity and alienation.
Fascism, Prime Minister, awaits the averted eye and the comatose will. It thrives on feelings of exclusivity. Your duty as a prime minister to India’s present and future far outweighs the calculations of petty electoral gains. Muslims today, who will be considered immaterial and irrelevant tomorrow? Christians? Sikhs? Dalits? Women? Non-Hindi speakers? In the days to come, could your remarks not be used as a beacon to emotionally disenfranchise our people? The Germans learnt too late that the ‘Star of David’ ultimately inflicted horrors not on one community alone.
The nation looks up to you for example and guidance, as it must to all prime ministers. I reckon you must be deeply sorry for what you may have uttered, perhaps under provocation. But the issue or principle at stake is of such magnitude that it cannot be assuaged by private anguish. I think you owe the nation either a retraction or an apology.
Yours Sincerely,
Deb Mukharji
February 21, 2002
The writer was Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh and ambassador to Nepal. He retired from the Indian Foreign Service in 2001.