That inferno of a train in Godhra in Gujarat magnified a terrifying truth: men driven by hate are out there to set the Indian civil society on fire. As the religious identity of certain passengers and their station of embarkation-Ayodhya-were a provocation for the savage act that killed more than 50 people, Godhra definitely had an agenda-a political, communal agenda. The riot that spread across the streets of Gujarat had its authorship in the perpetrators of Godhra. No point overlooking this fact. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the most impulsive member of the Sangh Parivar and never known for passive resistance, reacted to Godhra in its own style: a violent bandh. And at this moment, a black-and-white, qualitative distinction between the crime and the consequence is a futile exercise. The question is: does India deserve this? Or, can India afford another communal riot? No, certainly not. A riot with Ayodhya as the mobilising cry is all the more out of place, for the political distance between Ayodhya 1992 and Ayodhya 2002 is too vast to be reduced by the lonely rage of the VHP. Both the text and the context have changed.

The text is no longer the unleashed Hindu rage. The VHP has made Ayodhya almost a sectarian cause by electing itself as the sole champion of the historical Hindu grief. Today Ayodhya is steeped in legal and political uncertainties, begging for a resolution, not the kind the VHP wants to achieve. And the context: the spirit of the times is a repudiation of any form of religious violence, and India, as victim and defender, is in no position to play host to bloodletting religious rage. Think of it: a politically demoralised government ( courtesy Uttar Pradesh and other election humiliations) and a state on communal fire. Political responsibility and communal reason demand that the protagonists of Godhra and the riot born out of it should be denied the freedom to play out their divisive script. To some extent risking its own core ideological identity, the Vajpayee Government has made it unpleasantly clear to the VHP: on Ayodhya the Centre cannot deviate from its constitutional obligations. A mandir in the backdrop of a riot-no matter who is its true author-is not a vishwa Hindu triumph. It can only be a national tragedy-and a blazing triumph for those barbarians who set the train in Godhra on fire. India can't let it happen.