Editorial Desk

India is on the boil. For no conceivable reason, on the face of it, over the past two months violence between the Hindu majority and the minorities has been searing the political and social landscape.

Hindu fanatics have been attacking the by and large peaceful Christian minority in Orissa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand. To top that there have been Hindu-Muslim clashes in Assam, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. The latest episode in this sorry conjuncture has been enacted in Andhra Pradesh, where six people--belonging to a Muslim family--were burned to death as they slept in their home.

Whatever be the provocation, this regression to anti-civilisational modes of action by the Hindu fringe, which is becoming more and more frequent, is completely unacceptable. The Andhra Pradesh government headed by chief minister YV Rajashekhar Reddy must be squarely blamed for not dealing firmly with the situation that arose last week during Hindu festivities.

The problem is that the administration in all the states in which violence is happening seems to be complacent to the point of criminal negligence and abdication of responsibilities. Public statements of people in power merely reflect an unconcern for which they would be recalled in a responsive political set-up.

It is now up to the government--at the moment engaged in discussing various problems at the National Integration Council meeting--to send out the strongest of messages: that this kind of internecine violence will not be tolerated and that state governments must either shape up or ship out.

At the same time, the message must equally clearly go out to all political or para-political outfits with the warning that any attempt to foment communal violence will be met in the strongest possible terms--police action and crackdowns that will cripple them or even widespread proscription of their activities.

The soft, cynical and calculating approach to this kind of violence can be tolerated only if we are agreeable to the destruction of the social fabric and incalculable harm to the integrity of the nation. If the government does not act, in these especially troubled times, it must be up to the public, the citizenry, to take some action to heal wounds, build bridges and, equally important, marginalise extremists and fundamentalists in all quarters.