In a way, the country is engaged in voting every six months. True, it indicates eople's participation in choosing their representatives at every tier of governance. But it also eans that the nation does not settle down to work. Too many polls are becoming a constant digression, besides the inordinate expense they involve. On an average, a candidate pends Rs 1 crore in a state election. The Lok Sabha constituency may cost around seven, eight times more. The government expenditure for holding elections is separate.

The country must ponder over the suggestion by Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekawat that the elections to parliament and the state assemblies be held imultaneously. This was the general practice three decades ago. Then the politics crept in. The Congress-led centre dismissed the first communist government in Kerala. Under the constitution, an

assembly has to meet every six months. This necessitated election. The combination of opposition parties brought down the government in some other states. The Lok Sabha aced a similar situation less than a decade ago when the BJP government failed to get a vote of confidence.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Principal Secretary, P.N. Haksar, a political person, wanted to separate the state and parliamentary elections. His argument was that the entral issues should be discussed at national level and the state ones at the state level.

But this did not happen. Political parties do not want to do so. They have their set of prejudices and preferences which they articulate -- that is what they call the election plank.

Experience shows that local issues come to dominate in one form or the other. The calibre of candidates is increasingly coming into the picture. Yet, caste and money are becoming a big factor. The BJP is also playing the religious card. An appeal to the Hindutva sentiments has won them municipalities in 10 cities, including the prestigious one in Mumbai. UP, the biggest battleground, is already witnessing the role of religion. What happened in Gorakhpur, a fairly big town in the state, is probably a curtain-raiser of what may happen until the state goes to the polls in April. Still, India remains a fascinating place to study contrasts, not only in the field of economics but also in the social field. Pluralism and parochialism live side by side in a society where tolerance is a way of life, marred by disturbances of gruesome nature on religious lines.

Only recently did a Hindu priest get his 20-year-old adopted Muslim daughter married at a temple in the heart of Ahmedabad, where hundreds of Muslims were killed under a government-supported plan a few years ago. The wedding took place according to Muslim rites, and there was a namaz inside the temple. The bridegroom's father was so impressed that he asked the priest to look for spouses for his two daughters.

Yet India's pluralistic image is shattered every now and then. In the last few months, there has been the recurrence of communal violence at places like Jabalpur, Bangalore, Tirussur in Kerala and Mandsur in Madhya Pradesh. There is no doubt that the RSS is reviving its policy of dividing the country into Hindus and Muslims during the birth centenary of its fundamentalist leader Golwalker. For example, the bomb attacks outside mosques, like the ones at Nanded, are given out as "the only way of safeguarding Hindutva." But to India's woes, Muslim fundamentalists have also begun emerging, and indulging in violence, as was seen at Bangalore.

The purpose of the RSS-BJP combine is understandable. What Muslim undamentalists are doing is beyond me. The vandalism at Bangalore, to voice protest against the execution of Saddam Hussein, was senseless. Such incidents indicate extra-territorial sentiments. They revive the sterile debate about whether a Muslim is first a Muslim and then Indian, or the other way round. So dangerous can be this trend that its repercussions are too terrible to comprehend.

India's claim that it has no indigenous terrorists has already been falsified. Whether the Mumbai blasts are responsible for the situation, or the Gujarat killings have made some Muslim youths desperate, is not as relevant as the fact that a crop of local militants has come up. If this kind of militancy is going to seek connections abroad, it would only play into the hands of RSS or similar communal organisations. It would kill the very spirit of nationalism which evokes unity in the country.

That Muslims face discrimination in the matter of employment, education and economic development is a reality which the Sachar Commission has brought out in great detail. Despite the bureaucratic opposition, some of the Commission's ecommendations are bound to be implemented, particularly when the Ministry for

Minorities is headed by a Muslim. The dangerous development is that the prejudice of some among the Hindus is giving birth to a pernicious theory of Muslim identity. Once that takes roots, the thesis of separation begins to get credence. India has already paid the price in the shape of killing of lakhs of Hindus and Muslims during partition, besides the hatred that has continued to smoulder.

Muslims should remember that the sufferings and indignities which they have undergone, or are still undergoing, have something to do with the government's acts of omission or commission. But to confuse government with the country is suicidal. The government can be thrown out through the ballot box. But the harm done to the country is irretrievable. Twelve centuries have passed since Islam came to India. It has as much claim on the soil of India as Hinduism. If Hinduism has been the religion of the people here for several thousands of years, Islam has also been there for more than one thousand years. Hindus and Muslims are Indians who share deep bonds of brotherhood and nationhood. There is no other identity than being an Indian.

Tailpiece: The wife of an Indian diplomat, posted in Pakistan during the demolition of the Babri masjid, was requested by her gardener to bring a small replica of the Taj Mahal for him when she visited India next. She was curious to know why he made the request all of a sudden. The gardener said: "Who knows, you people may one day demolish even the Taj Mahal!"

Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.