The riots in Ahmedabad in July and the growing tension in various districts-just six months after the crisis in the Dangs have polarised Gujarat all over again. Even in a state where electoral mobilisation on the basis of community is no news, the poll strategy of political parties has seen this tendency plumb new depths this time.
Take the Ahmedabad riots. That annual source of tension-the Jagannath rathyatra, which winds through the city's Muslim pockets-had passed off peacefully. Then came an altercation in the old city. Resentment peaked, say locals, after activists-burning an effigy of Nawaz Sharif-allegedly taunted the minority community with provocative slogans during the Kargil conflict. Events thereafter filled one with deja vu: stabbings, looting and arson, leaving seven dead, scores injured and property worth lakhs destroyed. And a poll campaign began.
The Congress was first off the mark: "It's clear that after Sonia's successful rally, the RSS resorted to these dubious means to consolidate its votebank." Amarsinh Chaudhary, former CM, accused the BJP of "protecting the rioters", while Madhavsinh Solanki told Outlook: "There's no doubt about the hand of the VHP-Bajrang Dal. Even the state home minister admitted its activists were arrested for the riots." The BJP claimed the pattern of violence pointed to the Congress. "It was scared of losing its votebank because Kargil had brought Muslims closer to us. The Sonia and Vaghela rallies set the tone for it," said spokesman Bharat Pandya.
Some in the BJP say the Keshubhai regime was being sabotaged from within. "There's a belief that VHP hardliners got involved with the twin purpose of consolidating Hindus and embarrassing the Keshubhai-Hiren Pandya group which rules the roost here." But, as Father Cedric Prakash of the St Xavier's Society says, "these schisms won't prevent them from reaping the harvest of this Hindus-vs-the-rest scenario." To play up the siege mentality among Hindus, the BJP had been going to town about the RDX landing on the coast and the arrest of Pakistanis operatives in Gujarat.
The view finds resonance in Gupta Nagar, on the city outskirts. The "Muslim areas" of this "mixed colony" were targeted on the riot-torn night of July 29. Those who'd taken refuge in the local mosque were dragged out and beaten mercilessly; houses were sacked and means of livelihood destroyed. "Leading the rioters were some local policemen-that's why we are filing a case against them. But it's VHP-Bajrang Dal men who identified Muslim houses," says Raushanbehn, a local councillor. Adds Prakash, "The courts forced the state government to withdraw its surveys of Muslims and Christians ordered in February, but the damage was done by then. These riots and attacks on minorities in other parts of the state show the rioters knew exactly where to go".
Praveen Togadia, VHP general secretary, has his own take on the riots. "On the first day, a Hindu was stabbed in a Muslim area; by nightfall, there were three more such stabbings. It was three days before Hindus, naturally, retaliated." On the police, which in private blames the VHP, and the firs against some of its activists, Togadia espies a "bias among some in the administration." He adds, "I told the police after the first stabbings that anti-socials from those Muslim localities should be nabbed, but they refused. ISI-sponsored local outfits started it; when Hindus resist, they are blamed. If our protests intimidate some, we can't help it."
At Kalopur in the walled city, Hindu victims of the riots-a group of women on whom acid bombs were thrown-echo these views. Egged on by city unit BJP office-bearers Brijesh Sharma, Hukamsinh Shekhawat and younger brother Jabbarsinh, the man who was the "first on top of Babri Masjid in December '92" by his own, rather proud, admission. "Some elements in the state BJP are forgetting the fact that the party came to power on the basis of Hindu votes. Now that the elections are round the corner the realisation is sinking in again," all three chorus.
Others cite the VHP's hand all over the riot-torn towns of Gujarat. There was violence in Idar during the Jagannath yatra, which the VHP was instrumental in bringing to the town for the first time. In Nadiad, the VHP had reportedly dug up cases of inter-religious elopement, distributed provocative pamphlets on the subject, and called a bandh against "the Muslim conspiracy to lure away Hindu girls". At Dabhoi, it was accused of interfering in the friendship between a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl despite their parents reportedly having no objections.
Counters Togadia, "You're underestimating us. Our attempts to deter Muslim boys-they're paid to lure away Hindu girls...some are made pregnant-aren't limited only to the areas you mention. It's spread across the 18,000 villages of Gujarat."
The Congress is hoping to add Hindu segments (Kshatriya, obcs and even Patel) to its minority-tribal support. The BJP plans to exorcise the incumbency bogey by holding tight to its Hindu base, while claiming even Muslims will vote for it. Either way, recent events have led to Hindu consolidation, and their timing will do no harm to politicians. The fight now is to see how much this can, or can't, be breached.
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