The Hindu Business Line : The great divide in Gujarat

On election-eve, Gujarat presents a picture of contrasts, with the people generally polarised between the BJP and the Congress. On a quick tour of the State, Rasheeda Bhagat discovers why the feelings are running so high.

With the electorate polarised, who will get to wear the cap in Gujarat?

GUJARAT is indeed a land of contradictions. The land that gave birth to Mahatma Gandhi and his creed of non-violence witnessed some of the worst violence seen in recent times. The average Gujarati who is well known and well defined by the two simple Gujarati words `Maru shu?' (What about me?), and who is considered the shrewdest of Indians when it comes to making money and managing it, resorted to violence which has had the worst possible implications for the Hindus, as well as Muslims. Of course, the latter suffered much more.

Having worked over years to create separate mohallas of Hindus and Muslims, today that demarcation is near total in the entire city of Ahmedabad. And yet on Id day, I watched a Muslim friend, a senior advocate, get one phone call after another from his Hindus friends, greeting him on the festival. He lives in a predominantly Hindu locality in Paldi, near the National Institute of Design, and had had to shift to a safer place as the riots began on March 1. But a couple of months ago, and on the assurance and insistence of his Jain neighbours, he and his family moved back, though more than half the occupants in that complex of apartments, all Muslims, have left for good.

Every time there is the smallest of skirmishes, his brothers, all of whom live in the safest of Muslim localities in Kalupur, plead with him to leave Paldi. "As of now, we feel safe here and have told them not to disturb us in the middle of the night. As for our future abode, the shape and colour of the next government, and most of all, the way it runs the administration, will be the deciding factor," says his wife.

The macro picture as far as the Hindu/Muslim divide is concerned, looks bleak and every sociologist, political analyst or academic you talk to in Ahmedabad or Baroda, is deeply worried about the future of Gujarat vis-à-vis communalism. Many of them, almost all Hindus, are quick to admit that they are "allergic" to the Hindutva brigade's politics of hate.

For instance, Mr Girish Patel, the first person from Gujarat University in 1963 to get an LLM from the Harvard Law School, and who has founded the Lok Sangarsh Samiti to take on the BJP/VHP's agenda of communal divide, says Muslims have suffered "unimaginable colossal economic loss" during the March 2002 riots. "And it is this ideology of destroying the Muslims economically all over the country, that is being fine-tuned in this laboratory of Hindutva. I know many Hindus who have sent out their Muslim drivers and people like us who want to employ Muslims are worried not about ourselves but their security. Even if I have a Muslim employee, I will have to call him Ramesh or Suresh in front of others."

But driving down to Anand and Baroda from Ahmedabad and stopping randomly en route on the national highway, you find Hindus and Muslims enjoying their nashta (snacks) on the same table, or lapping up bhel puri from the same vendor or a Muslim student on the pillion of his Hindu friend's two-wheeler.

In Nadiad town, about 45 km from Ahmedabad, Kiranbai Kansara, a dealer in second-hand two-wheelers, says he has decided to vote for the Congress. "I don't approve of the BJP's policy of dividing Hindus and Muslims just to get power. Hindus and Muslims are like a huge joint family created by God, which these people are trying to divide."

His words are not mere rhetoric as can be seen from the presence of young Yaseen, who works for him. "There was virtually no business for two months in March and April, but I paid him full salary."

Yaseen himself is quite bitter and says, "There are seven votes in my family and we'll see to it that all of us vote and not a single vote will go to the BJP."

Many Muslims have, like Yaseen, decided that their entire families will come out to vote on the polling day and each vote will go to the Congress, even if the candidate, from a third party or an Independent, is a Muslim. They have decided not to waste their votes for candidates who cannot win.

The Congress knows this too well and is not wasting too much of its energy wooing the Muslim voters. It knows only too well that those Muslims who had left it to vote for the BJP last time around, hoping that since the party in power is often responsible for fanning or containing communal riots, their lives, homes and means of livelihood would be more secure under a stable government. That logic has now been proved a mere mirage.

So the GPCC chief, Mr Shankersinh Vaghela, is out to woo the moderate Hindus and those economically hurt by the communal carnage. At many a rally he pulls out photographs and newspaper reports of Hindu traders who have committed suicide because their business was paralysed for months after the riots and who could not repay loans taken from banks or, much worse, from loan sharks at huge rates of interest.

"Actually, Vaghela aney Modi ek beejana baap chhey (Vaghela and Modi are a perfect match against each other)," says Kiranbhai.

In the heart of Anand town, Rajubhai, a Muslim ("My parents christened me Raju when I was born") is enjoying hot and spicy bhajjias with a couple of Patels, on a wayside road stall. "Oh yes, March and April were terrible months but most Hindus and Muslims have realised that we cannot live together in this atmosphere of hatred. Yesterday was Id and 10 Patel friends had come to my house to greet me,"' says the man who runs a truck business. He has three trucks and all "the three drivers are Hindus and so many of my clients are Hindus. But, of course, I do know Muslim truck drivers who lost their jobs as their employers were Hindus." A traditional Congress supporter, in the last election he voted for the BJP "in the hope that the new government will make a different to my life and livelihood. Of course this time the BJP will not get my vote. Not that the Congress is a friend of Muslims, but we have no alternative here."

Elsewhere in Anand, as a couple of Hindus say they will vote for the BJP, and questioned on the achievements of the Modi Government, Nazirbhai, a tempo driver, says acidly: "Oh, it has such a huge achievement. It made Gujarat famous all over the world." Adds his friend Abdul Sattar, "We have no illusions about the Congress; both parties have bashed ordinary people like us, only the BJP has bashed us more because we are Muslim."

In the nearby N .S. Patel Arts College, a second year student, Suresh Sindhi, is fire and brimstone as he waxes eloquent on Narendra Modi's virtues: "For a secure future, we Hindus have to vote for Modi. We have seen the tension in our society thanks to Muslim terrorists and we feel only Modi can save Gujarat. He was the one who took on Medha Patkar and brought Narmada water to Gujarat."

A fellow student, Malik Ilyas, tries to intervene weakly saying that the Narmada scheme was initiated by the Congress and how the BJP is bankrupt of any other issues in this elections except the Hindutva issue, but his voice is drowned by his Hindu friends, all of whom support the BJP . Waving his fist, Suresh has the final word, "We will bring in Modi and will not allow Gujarat to become another Kashmir."

Kher Ramesh, who is training to be a teacher, is genuinely worried about economic development having come to a halt after Godhra. "In log ne Gujarat ki chhabi kharab kar di hei (These people have spoilt the image of Gujarat). But we also know that the Congress cannot give a good rule. I will vote for the BJP and would want it to come to power, but in a coalition government. I think nobody should get a majority, because then manmani nahi kar payengey (it won't be a blank cheque to do what they want). They will feel insecure, just like Vajpayee is feeling at the moment!"

Ashutosh Vyas, his fellow trainee, hails from Rajasthan and is scathing on the Congress government's performance there. "A teacher in Rajasthan gets a mere Rs 1200 compared to Rs 2500 in Gujarat. Look at the high cost of power in Rajasthan and they say they will give cheap power here. How? Logon ko bewakoof bana rahey hein.(The Congress is fooling the people)."

Almost wistfully, Mr. Girish Patel says about the future government of Gujarat, "More than any other State, Gujarat today needs a Laloo Prasad or a Mulayam.

The Congress is in no position to take on the BJP. Let us not forget that it was after all Laloo who had the courage to arrest Advani. I feel so sorry and so outraged at our plight today. After all who is a (Syed) Bukhari or (Praveen) Togadia to define Islam or Hindusim for us? But, then, we educated people are to blame for bringing the country to this state of affairs."

Response can be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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