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by Lynn Ockersz

Whatever the motives behind Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalitha Jeyaram's dramatic verbal onslaught on Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on her racial origins and her suitability to rule India on that score, the stage seems set for the re-fuelling of racial sentiments in the run-up to India's next general election.

If political expediency is indeed the reason for this racial salvo by Jayalalitha, as some suppose it to be in view of efforts by the AIADMK to re-align itself with the ruling BJP-led coalition, the development tends to show the latter in an unfavourable light. For, implied in this supposition is the belief that the ruling coalition is overtly and explicitly chauvinistic. Besides denting the Government's image, the attempt to stoke racial animosities could prove a hindrance to the advancement of the current debate in the South Asian region as a whole on the need to recognise multiculturalism as a cornerstone of governance.

Despite views to the contrary, the ruling BJP-led coalition in India has endeavoured to project the image of a democratically-oriented, accommodative government which is sensitive to minority opinion. Communally-oriented interests seem to have acted in the belief that they would receive the tacit backing of the State when they, for instance, triggered communal riots in Gujarat recently. But the Government has managed to distance itself from these interests in an effort to reemphasize the secular credentials of the Indian State.

Jayalalitha's controversial remarks on Gandhi could, however, stir hardline Hindu sentiment and undo the positive which have been achieved so far by the Centre.

The worst that could happen in these circumstances is for democratic opinion on the Indian subcontinent and in the region to adopt a defeatist attitude and play a reactive rather than a proactive role in meeting the challenges created by the incendiary Jayalalitha comments.

The onus is on democratic and progressive opinion in India to consolidate the secular credentials of the Indian polity at this juncture. An attempt on the part of opportunistic political elements to fan communal sentiments would only create many more Gujarats in India and irreparably damage the image India now enjoys as the region's most "institutionalised democracy".

There are lessons here for the whole of South Asia. The major challenge of establishing democratic rule in any state couldn't be considered as having been accomplished by installing the external, formal trappings of democracy, such as setting up the first past-the-post electoral system and institutions, such as central and provincial legislatures.

The core essence of democracy, however, is equality of citizens in both condition and opportunity. This is the central agenda of multiculturalism - an ideological framework of governance which enshrines equality in all its dimensions. Until this central core of democracy is given concrete shape, communal tensions could be expected to erupt in the multi-ethnic countries of the region. Indeed, its lack is the breeding ground of the likes of Jayalalitha.

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