They yell, ‘Mahatma Gandhi ki jai.’ Hotels, cafes, shops close down. It is like a big holiday. I tell you it is Delhi’s biggest tamasha of all time.

On the sixth day of his fast, the Old Man complains he can’t piddle. I would like to ask him: ‘What happened to all the orange and lime-juice you drank?’ He babbles as if only half-awake. The radio says he is dying. Thousands turn up as if their real fathers were dying. They tell him that they have been fasting with him—their fathers, mothers, wives and children too. They submit petitions saying they will not molest Muslims; they will get out of mosques and Muslims’ homes, even welcome Muslims returning from Pakistan.

They bring Muslims from wherever they can find them, put garlands round their necks and parade with them in the streets. They force tea and lemonades and sweets done the Muslims’ throats. They form Peace Committees. The chief says if everyone is going mad, we should also pretend to be mad. The RSS puts its name down on the Peace Committee. The Old Fox is only waiting for this. As soon as he hears that the RSS has joined the Peace Committee he agrees to give up his fast.

It is Sunday, 18 January. It is also the birthday of Guru Gobind Singh, the last of the Sikhs’ ten Gurus. The Mussalmans had killed his father, his sons, thousands of his followers and then murdered him. We had planned to celebrate the day by driving every remaining Muslim out of Delhi. Our chief had said, ‘Once we start it, the Sikhs are sure to join us.’ But as I said, the Ganga is flowing the wrong way. There are hundreds of thousands of Sikhs at Gurdwara Rikabganj where the Guru’s father’s body was cremated a hundred-and-seventy-two years ago. Amongst them are hundreds of Mussalmans paying homage to the Sikh’s holy book. The Old Fox says it is an auspicious day and since he’s got what he wanted he is going to break his fast. At 12.45 a.m. he takes a glass of orange-juice from the hands of the goatee-bearded Maulana Azad, says ‘Ram, Ram’ and drinks it up. The hypocrite! So the work we have done over the months, the blood we have spilled is undone by the Old Man in six days!