15 years after riots, Cong tries soft Hindutva, BJP eyes Muslim votes
DIVIDED ELECTORATE Communal polarisation is a key feature of Gujarat politics and parties are attempting to raid each other’s vote bank
The line dividing Hindus and Muslims in Godhra has never run deeper. Darshan Soni can’t remember the last time he stepped into the Muslim territory as himself.
An active member of Godhra’s leading cow vigilante group, Soni only crosses into the Muslim area posing as a Muslim — skullcap placed firmly on his big, bald head – to pick up leads on the movement of cows. He hasn’t willingly spoken to a Muslim in 24 years. “We don’t talk to each other in Godhra; we never have.”
The town of 150,000 people has never been known for Hindu-Muslim harmony. “Since before 1947, every year an incident drove the communities apart,” said a Muslim trader who didn’t want to be named.
And 2002 sealed it forever, when on February 28, 59 Hindu pilgrims travelling in the Sabarmati Express were killed in a fire ; nearly 2,000 people, a majority of them Muslims, were killed in subsequent riots .
Communal polarisation is a defining feature of Gujarat politics, and Godhra is its prime example. In the assembly constituency of Godhra, where Muslims make up about 22% of the electorate, the Congress has defeated the BJP in six of the 12 assembly elections so far. But the coming elections will test both parties .
Muslims, 9% percent of the state’s population, see the BJP’s renewed focus on cow protection as a bid to consolidate the Hindu vote bank.
However, some of Gujarat’s Muslims feels disillusioned with the Congress . The party hasn’t made significant moves to rebuild the community’s trust. In March, Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki, said, “I will be most happy if Lord Ram’s temple is rebuilt in his birthplace.” In June, the party’s youth wing demanded the Centre declare the cow as national animal.
If the Congress is toying with soft Hindutva to win Hindus, the BJP is trying to woo Muslims. In May, the party’s minority cell kicked off Muslim meets with an event in rural Gandhinagar where, it claims, around 2,000 members of the Congress’ minority cell switched over .
But issues of safety and security still weigh heavily on Muslims.
In Godhra, local meat shops shut down for a week after the BJP government’s announcement of life term for cow slaughter, to avoid trouble.
“Nearly 70% of the community lives in fear that they will be implicated by police if trouble happens,” says Sophia Jamal, vice-president at the town municipality.
“Nothing has changed in the 15 years. When our kids are picked up over suspicion and sent to jail, they keep rotting there until a court decides in their favour,” she adds.
Compared to the Hindus, Muslims are cautious on the subject of HinduMuslim ties. They find it easier to blame police and politicians . “All this drama is to provoke riots,” says Haneef Haji. “BJP people run maximum butcher shops . You tell us your religion doesn’t allow killing of animals — then what are bulls, buffaloes and goats?”
There is only one exception to Godhra’s Hindu-Muslim segregation. Harin Patel and Sajid Khan Pathan have been business partners since 2007. They run their motor company from an office space burnt down in the 2002 riots. “There should be tuning between two people. That’s the important thing in business,” says Patel. “Ek dum close relation hai. Family relation hai. (We are very close, like family),” says Pathan.
It seems like the perfect story. There is one catch, though. Pathan happens to be a vegetarian: “Why eat beef at all? Not like it’s a good thing. Some people are just being stubborn.”