Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam’s take on BJP’s asthi kalash yatra in Bihar.

It seems BJP cannot survive even a day without mass violence and communal riot. All the time it is itching for such a conflict.

For several days in Bihar, this riot-loving party had been running a macabre show through six districts. They have called it asthi kalash yatra.

The asthi kalash (ashes) belong to the cremated bodies of six victims of a bomb attack on the rally of Narendra Modi in Patna last week.

Such yatras have all the potential of provoking bloody riots. In the past, such yatras have never failed to ignite terrible anti-Muslim violence.

So far, this party has not succeeded in starting a riot in Bihar even though they have tried their best. As if in frustration, Modi said in his second visit to Bihar (to meet families of victims), as if by way of a taunt, “Bihar’s have a lot of patience.”

The implication was that if such an asthi kalash yatra were taken out in Gujarat the Gujaratis would have started an anti-Muslim riot. In fact, this is how the Gujarat 2002 killings began.

In Bihar, BJP would have started riots by now had the government of Nitish Kumar not been strict about preventing them. Nitish knows that the only party that will gain from communal violence is BJP, not JDU. Also, a riot cannot be started or sustained without the support of the chief minister, and Nitish is no mood for a riot.

It is important for Bihar government to remain alert at least till the end of election, because BJP will try to create trouble to harvest electoral benefit in 2014.

Communal conflict always benefits this party. Hence, it will do its best to create conflict at every opportunity.