***The essence of any action is quick prosecution of the guilty. If this is not done the murderers and rapists would not be afraid. This is exactly what has been happening in India. Situations of mass violence are a challenge to our legal system and social conscience. Failure on this count will upset judicial norms and undermine the standing of state institutions in the minds of the citizenry.***

THE BJP does not seem to do anything right. Its participation in the government at Lucknow is not only ugly but immoral. The UP voters rejected the party in the state election. It finished third. After the defeat, its reaction was correct: people did not give it the mandate and it should, therefore, sit in the opposition. It is not the noble desire to span the distance between the upper castes and the dalits which has motivated the BJP to support Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). It is the ambition to stay in power which has effected the alliance. On the top has been the consideration of 13 BSP members in the Lok Sabha, without whom the BJP-led government would have been in trouble to win the censure motion on its failure in Gujarat. How long the arrangement between the BSP and the BJP will last is anybody's guess. Each of the two earlier tie-ups collapsed after a few months.

The present one too is bound to cave in because of the difference in their outlook. But by then both the BSP and the BJP would have corrupted the system more and exploited the state still more for their personal and party ends. That the lure of power should lead the BJP to

defy the people's wishes is a sad comment on the party leadership, which is already in trouble after its complicity in the Gujarat carnage.

The resignations of Coal Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Omar Abdullah, Minister of state for External Affairs, have shaken the Vajpayee government because it can be the beginning of the end of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). At least it indicates that all

the constituent parties have not sold their conscience for the saddle as the Samata Party of George Fernandes has done.

During the debate, the Defence Minister sounded like the drumbeater of the RSS. However, I am surprised at the BJP's persistent hide-bound attitude, spending all the time in manoeuvering support at the Centre and getting a substantial share in the UP cabinet, rather than quenching the fire which the Sangh parivar had lit in Gujarat.

The President's appeal for peace on the eve of the Gujarat discussion in parliament is eloquent enough to censure the government even though it has managed to win in the Lok Sabha, numberwise. (BJP Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj ordered

Doordarshan not to telecast live the Guajarat debate in parliament.) Yet, the question facing the nation is not the BJP-BSP alliance in UP but the normalisation of the situation in Gujarat where the government is asking refugees to fend for themselves without the state repairing their houses and shops or giving them even the meagre compensation. It not only shows insensitivity but also vendetta.

The first and foremost requirement for peace is the exit of chief minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister had said before he went to Gujarat that Modi "is already behaving like a hero," meaning thereby that he would try to parade himself as a martyr if and when ousted. But this was a wrong impression. Once the BJP withdraws its backing from him, he would get deflated in no time and his supporters will disappear.

They are there because he is in power and because the BJP is behind him. Some reports suggest that Modi may be out before long. I believe the apex meetings of the BJP and the RSS discussed Prime Minister Vajpayee's "unhappiness" over Modi's governance. Even if this is true, the RSS will not easily jettison him because he is the one who has implemented its philoso-

phy of exterminating the minorities act.

Still, if the BJP continues with Modi, the only way out is for the President of India to take the initiative. Normally, it is the central government which recommends the dismissal of a state government. Let him reverse this process and make Modi's resignation a point of his prerogative under Article 356, which empowers the President to dismiss

a state government on the failure of the government machinery. The BJP government will not risk a constitutional impasse over Modi.

The President should also insist on changing the state governor, another RSS man, who was handin-glove with Modi during the massacre in Gujarat. The President should at least ask the centre to entrust the inquiry on Gujarat carnage to the CBI. The state inquiry is half-hearted and superficial. The CBI has already been told to probe into the Godhra train incident. There is no reason why the agency's purview cannot be extended to the rest of Gujarat. New Delhi's plea that the state has to permit the CBI does not wash because the BJP rules at the Centre as well as at Gandhinagar.

The inquiry will understandably

take time to reach conclusions. The immediate problem is the rehabilitation of lakhs of uprooted Muslims. Prime Minister Vajpayee had announced during his visit to the refugee camps that his office would monitor the resettlement work. The state, biased as it is, is dragging its feet. Necessary funds are not coming forth. What do the refugees do? There are cases where the refugees have been promised

assistance on the condition that they withdraw their FIRs, which, in any case, are not many in number because the registration has been selective. The evidence of the boys who have seen murders and rapes with their own eyes is not being taken into account because they are not adults.

The Prime Minister is saying again and again that Gujarat is a "shame." What has he done to erase the black mark? Modi is there and so is his terrorist instrument Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The state machinery is the same, with the biased officers and the police in position. Vajpayee has admonished the foreigners.

They are not interfering but feeling appalled over the country which they have found more liberal and accommodative than many in

the democratic Europe. I am amused to read the comment by Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi. He has referred to the treatment meted out to the Negroes in America. (Incidentally, Washington is conspicuous by its silence on the Gujarat happenings.) Of course, there is discrimination against the black in the US. But every time an incident takes place, it is followed up by quick and effective action. Only the other day did a Negro in Los Angeles get $ 6 million as compensation for the injuries he got when four white policemen beat him up. The state does not join the rioters as it happened in Gujarat.

The manner in which America prosecutes the offenders is an example for India. The 3,000 Sikhs killed in 1984 are still a matter of various committees and commissions. None has been punished for the crime committed 18 years ago. In comparison, an American who killed a Sikh at the petrol pump after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington has already been tried and punished.

In India, the state machinery has got contaminated and there is very little possibility of getting justice, at least in a short time. The essence of any action is quick prosecution of the guilty. If this is not done the murderers and rapists would not be afraid. This is exactly what has been happening in India. Situations of mass violence are a challenge to our legal system and social conscience. Failure on this count will upset judicial norms and undermine the standing of state institutions in the minds of the citizenry. It is still not too late to give due respect to the rule of law.

Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.