Even as the country was recovering from the shock of the two terrorists' attacks on the holy city of Varanasi, the self-styled custodians of the nation and the majority community were mobilising their efforts at stoking the communal fires. These practitioners of medieval political arts from the Sangh Parivar were once again falling back on their pastime of taking out 'rath yatras' to whip up a revengeful religious frenzy among the majority community after the reprehensible attacks on innocents at the ancient Sankat Mochan temple and the cantonment railway station at Varanasi.

Though some people allowed themselves to believe otherwise during the BJP-led NDA rule at the Centre, there should never have been any doubt that the political outfit called the Bharatiya Janata Party is incapable of rising above its anti-minority agenda and pushing harder and harder its narrow political considerations in the face of any major threat to communal amity. A couple of its top leaders may have toyed with the concept of inclusiveness to stay in power but the BJP remains steadfastly resistant to anything that will broaden its appeal across the full spectrum of Indian society.

The best answer to the attacks on Varanasi would have been a uniform but sober response by all political parties that irrespective of their 'ideological' or other differences they remained one at an hour of national tragedy, and in their determination to wipe out terrorism and maintain communal harmony in the country. Not that the response of other parties to the Varanasi attacks cannot be faulted, the fact remains that it was the BJP and like-minded parties that decided to up the communal ante after the March 7 tragedy in the holy UP city on the banks of the sacred Ganges.

LK Advani, leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, and Raj Nath Singh, who only recently replaced Advani as the BJP president after Advani's convoluted efforts at establishing his 'secular' credentials at the mausoleum of Pakistan's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, in Karachi had backfired, announced plans to undertake 'rath yatras'. There was little effort to hide the fact that these chariot rides were aimed against the minorities.

Inside Parliament and the state assembly in Lucknow, the BJP members could think of nothing better than obstructing business and force adjournments while raising religious slogans that some might see as provocative. The only thing that appealed to the BJP (and the Shiv Sena) was to utilise the occasion to record their allegations against the government that it was 'soft' towards terrorism and it pursued a so-called 'minority appeasement' policy.

In no other democracy, hit by major terrorist attacks, do they take recourse to such partisan course when their House assembles on the morrow of a major tragedy. Both the US and the UK have had major terror attacks but their politicians sank their differences to stand to tell the perpetrators that they were all one in thwarting their nefarious designs. That is how mature nations react.

If the present governments at the Centre and in UP deserve to be condemned for preventing terrorist attacks, then it is the BJP which merits a bigger censure because during its 'distinguished' six-year term in office the country had witnessed some of the biggest and most serious terrorist attacks: Parliament (December 2001); Akshardham Temple, Gandhinagar, Gujarat (September 2004; 30 killed); Raghunath Temple, Jammu (December 2002; 14 killed), not to mention blasts in Mumbai in August 2003 that led to at least 50 deaths, and the Gujarat carnage in February 2002 in which up to 2000 people, most of them minority community members, were killed.

These tragedies brought a deep sense of shock and outrage in the country but there were no calls for 'rath yatras' and 'bandhs' as a response to the diabolic acts of terrorism. Incidentally, the highest court in the land has upheld the long-held belief of many in the country that the Gujarat administration, headed by a 'poster boy' of the BJP, did little to prevent the carnage.

In the opinion of the BJP, the UPA government is 'soft' on terrorism and has tried to 'appease' the minority community through various legislative measures. BJP must hang its head in shame for an act of its when in power that exposed beyond any doubt that the government of the day had no policy to confront terrorists but to bow before them. Readily accepting a demand from the terrorist-hijackers of an Indian civilian plane (Pakistani nationals or persons of Pakistani origin), the government ordered unconditional release of Pakistani terrorists lodged in Indian jails; the then foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, then escorted these released prisoners to their freedom in the Taliban-ruled Kandahar. For good measure the Indian minister thanked the Taliban for its 'help'!

It is rather surprising that despite being so openly told by the Indian electorate two years ago that the kind of divisive politics that it prefers has no place in their hearts, the party with the 'divine right to rule ' (Advani's famous boast last year) repeatedly returns to its yatra core. For better or worse, Indians have now acquired enough confidence in their abilities to be less enamoured of the special brand of BJP political rhetoric that seeks to arouse passions.

There is lesser attraction for some of the more favoured communal BJP slogans among the masses as more and more people see the strength of the country-in unity and cohesiveness. Tile the recent internal 'regime change' in the BJP which forced the party's return to Hindutva, many of the BJP 'thinkers' were advocating a shift from its inclusive ideology.

Bad mouthing political rivals does not inspire people, especially when the charges appear politically motivated or downright vacuous. Rabble-rousing politicians face an unequal competition from their more considered counterparts in other parties. People seem to think that their future as well as that of the country lies in all of them swimming together to reach the shore of progress and prosperity which no longer looks all that distant.