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We're with you, People's Front tells Gujarat victims

By K.V. Prasad

AHMEDABAD APRIL 25. As the siren-wailing convoy of the People's Front delegation wound its way out from Aman Chowk camp in Bapu Nagar area of this violence-hit city, people from the minority community lined up on the roadsides and cheered, trying to latch on to a sense of comfort and belonging in these difficult times.

The communist leaders, Harkishan Singh Surjeet and A.B. Bardhan, stressed the need to maintain communal amity in the face of grave provocation, underlining that thoughts of revenge would not lead to any solution. Their biggest worry was how to restore the trust that had almost disappeared between the two communities in the State.

The People's Front leaders, who visit the city on Wednesday, met the riot victims, their representatives and activists of non-governmental organisations and visited some camps in the city and also various hospitals.

While the leaders did not say anything new about the gravity of the situation and the indifference of the Modi Government towards the riot victims, their visit is sure to have instilled confidence that the minorities were not alone in the plight. Be it the former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, the Samajwadi Party chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the SP general secretary, Amar Singh, the RSP leader, Abani Roy, or the Forward Bloc general secretary, Debabrata Biswas, all reminded the people that while the battle against fascist forces was a long haul, the minorities were not alone in the fight. "We are with you and doing everything we can." Having forced a discussion in Parliament on the issue was trumpeted as a small triumph.

It could be argued that their words, which sometimes bordered on rhetoric, would change little but the presence of the Mr. Yadav certainly brought a glimmer of hope. The manner in which people in some Muslim-dominated areas cheered Mr. Yadav and responded to every word he uttered indicated that things could turn around.

Yet it was pitiful that neither Mr. Yadav nor Mr. Singh could rise above their narrow or "focussed" approach on Uttar Pradesh politics. During their speeches, they made it a point to remind the people that vacillation by the Congress in extending support had prevented the SP from forming the next government in Uttar Pradesh.

Interaction with Muslim organisations saw some emotional outbursts. A representative of the community commented that perhaps the community was paying for the "error of judgment" of their ancestors, only to be ticked off by Mr. Surjeet. NGOs workers stressed the total absence of rehabilitation measures and urged the leaders to force the Government to compute a list of those "missing", especially from the villages.

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• We're with you, People's Front tells Gujarat victims
• `Modi Govt. used State machinery to target minorities'

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