An apology for the omissions of the Congress that led to the demolition of Babri Masjid is a meaningless exercise if the real intention is to assuage the hurt feelings of Muslims.

It is a simplistic solution inasmuch as it presupposes that the alienation of Muslims from the Congress is primarily on account of the demolition. It is true that Muslims felt cheated when the Congress Government at the Centre remained a mute witness to the razing of the Ayodhya shrine. For them the demolition was clinching evidence that the Congress could no longer be trusted.

While the Turkman Gate incident and the sterilisation campaign during the Emergency were matters of concern, what shook Muslims' confidence in the secular credentials of the Congress was the Rajiv Gandhi Government's hasty decision to open the gates of the Ayodhya shrine following a court order. Seldom before had the Congress shown such enthusiasm in respecting court orders.

In their perception, the Congress compounded its guilt by permitting a controversial shilanyas at the disputed place and launching its subsequent election campaign from Ayodhya with the promise of Ram Rajya. And when one of the worst-ever riots occurred in Mumbai in the wake of the demolition, they found that the Congress was incapable of ensuring even their security.

So if an apology is to be effective, it will have to cover a series of lapses by the Congress. But that is surely not the aim of Congress president Sitaram Kesri, who sees it more as a stick with which to beat his predecessor P.V. Narasimha Rao. Even votaries of the apology such as Sharad Pawar would not like to extend its scope, lest it should boomerang on the party. Kesri has found the convenient argument that the Calcutta session should concern itself only with events that occurred since the Tirupati session in 1992. But then apologies are not time-barred. Neither the Koreans who insisted that the Japanese should apologise for the comfort women nor the Japanese who graciously apologised for the same were guided by how much time had lapsed since the end of the Second World War. But in the case of the Congress, where the doctrine of infallibility is applied in the case of leaders like Rajiv Gandhi, an apology that will show them in poor light is simply out of question. After all, an apology implies an admission of guilt.Since the Congress has found it politically expedient to apologise to Muslims, it stands to reason that it should also make such gestures to the various other communities which it has antagonised over the years through its acts of omission and commission. In fact, the party could make a beginning by apologising for its nefarious role in the macabre killing and looting that Delhi witnessed in the wake of Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984. A still better idea would be to apologise for Operation Bluestar, particularly when the affected people have been insisting on it. Since so many apologies can be time-consuming, why does it not make an omnibus apology for all its failures during its long tenure at the Centre and in most states? It may carry greater conviction with the masses even if it may not bring them back into the party's arms.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.