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Naroda-Patiya residents wary of voting

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD DEC. 2. A sense of despondency has engulfed the people in the Naroda-Patiya area on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Battered in the communal riots by the `Hindutva' elements, they see no ray of hope from the Congress either.

They will not vote for the BJP, that is for sure, but whether they will vote for the Congress in the December 12 elections or simply stay at home on the crucial polling day is a matter they are yet undecided about.

``We are feeling scared to go out and vote unless we have a polling booth in our own locality where we will not have to pass through the Hindu-dominated areas,'' said Yusuf Ibrahim, a resident of Naroda-Patiya where at least 90 people were massacred and their bodies burnt on the Gujarat Bandh day on February 28.

Normally, the polling booth for the Naroda-Patiya area is located at a school in Hindu-dominated Saijpur-Bogha locality.

"We have demanded a change, if agreed to we may vote, otherwise no one will dare to go to Saijpur to exercise their franchise,'' Yusuf said.

The collectorate has promised to make special arrangements to set up a booth for the Muslim voters in Naroda-Patiya in their own locality, but the situation by and large is the same in most of the mixed colonies and certainly, the authorities will not be able to make separate arrangements for the two communities everywhere.

Some of the residents of Naroda-Patiya have returned to their homes after the Government closed down the Shah-e-Alam relief camp, but many others, still haunted by the carnage they witnessed on the fateful day, have refused to return. Several of them have rented houses in Muslim-dominated localities, some are still staying with their friends and relatives and some migrants have gone back to their home States and have not yet returned.

As Sadiq Hussain pointed out, there is not much attraction for them to return because they have lost their jobs here. Most of them were employed in local factories owned by the Hindus, and the owners have refused to re-employ them after the riots — an impact of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's campaign for economic boycott of the minorities — or they themselves are too scared to return to their work.

The self-employed have slowly re-started their business but are limiting themselves to work within the minority-dominated localities.

However, a semblance of communal amity has returned in most of the mixed localities. The people of the two communities are again living together, even as next-door neighbours. But all are apprehensive about how the "guardians of Hindutva'' will behave on the polling day.

Knowing fully well that the Muslim votes will not go to the BJP, they doubt whether the VHP or the Bajrang Dal activists would allow them to participate in the voting.

They are equally not sure whether the Congress will provide them the necessary security to enable them to vote. They have no confidence in the State police.

"During the riots, the police acted as the agents of the hooligans. Who knows how the police will behave if we go to vote,'' said Yusuf.

The Muslim voters of Naroda-Patiya regret voting for the BJP in the last municipal corporation elections.

"It is because the BJP had promised to solve our long-pending demand for a cemetery in the locality.'' But the BJP lost the elections and the Muslims lost their cemetery. "Instead, the BJP converted the entire Naroda-Patiya into a cemetery on February 28,'' lamented Kamruddin Sheikh.

Most of the victims are still to receive the compensation promised by the Government for the loss they suffered in the riots or for the loss of lives of their kin.

"Everything in my household was looted or destroyed and what I have received from the Government in return is a meagre Rs. 1,800,'' said Sagirabibi.

Abudul Razzak, who witnessed six members of his family being killed in front of him, is yet to receive a penny.

"The Government is asking for identification of the bodies. They were killed, dumped in a well and burnt without any trace, how do I identify the bodies,'' he asked.

Like Sagirabibi and a host of others in Naroda-Patiya, Abida Qureshi, who lives in a rented house said, "I am in no mood to vote in this election.''

But Abdur Rahim Shamsuddin, the Imam of the local mosque, whose "fatwa'' will ultimately matter in the elections, holds a different view.

"They are scared and also seething with anger, but if the election authorities put up a separate polling booth here, I am sure the Muslims will vote en masse,'' he said.

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