Abdul hafiz Lakhani for BeyondHeadlines
Ahmedabad : There are still ample indications that even after exit of Narendra Modi from Gujarat, Muslims in state still live under fear and they are under constant attack from saffron brigade. recently, In south Gujarat near Bilimora railway station, a Muslim family was attacked by Hindu mob on a petty issue of seat sharing in train. This mob also raised the slogans that this is Modi’s Gujarat. male member of the family was hit by a rod and he was seriously injured. Another example of Muslim’s fear that recently there was heavy rain in Ahmedabad. most of the areas were under water. Muslims ghettos were turned into river. PUCL tried very hard to find some Muslims to file petition against Municipal corporation but not a single Muslim or Muslim NGO was ready for this. lastly PUCL took the leas role and did the remaining process.
VHP and Bajrang Dal workers in Gujarat are feeling some AAZADI after Mod’s elevation as a PM of the country. New CM Anandiben Patel looks a bit sober in dealing with BJP’s sister organisations. The Vadodara Police have booked members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for brandishing swords and daggers at a rally to mark the 50 years of the saffron organization in the city on last Sunday.
Members partaking in the rally passed through communally sensitive areas at least two points in the city, wielding swords and holding banners with the message: “Yachna nahi Rann hoga”. With the dates for the by polls of the Vadodara Parliamentary Constituency already declared and the Model Code of Conduct in place, VHP members violated the rules by carrying weapons.
The rally, comprising of countless motorbikes and cars packed with VHP supporters displaying saffron flags of the organization, passed through the busy market streets of the city, crossing communally sensitive areas on their way.
The members held placards that read, “Yachna Nahi Rann hoga, yudhh mahabheeshan hoga”, and chanted Jai Shri Ram. The policemen deployed to monitor the rally stood mute spectators as the group flaunted their weapons and broke into tandav jigs on the road.
The rally began at the VHP’s Vadodara base in Salatwada area and proceeded to Kothi, Raopura, Amdavadi Pol, Navabazar, Bajwada, Champaner Darwaza, Mandvi, Nyay Mandir and Khanderao Market before concluding at its point of origin, thus covering a four kilometer stretch, including communally sensitive pockets.
Although the organization had acquired permission from the police to hold its rally, coinciding with the festival of Krishna Janmashtmi, cops say no religious or political outfit can be allowed to flaunt weapons during the MCC being in force. Despite his public image, Narendra Modi was careful to keep the fringe elements of the Sangh parivar at a distance when he was chief minister of Gujarat. He succeeded in weakening elements such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to the extent that hundreds of temples could be demolished as illegal structures in Gandhinagar just ahead of the 2009 elections with hardly a whimper of protest.
But are things changing under his successor Anandiben Patel? A communal skirmish took place in Bhuj ahead of Eid, while a temple was allegedly desecrated in Idar in north Gujarat during Shravan leading to a tense situation.
Apart from this, on Eid day, the chief minister performed an aarti that had been organized by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on the banks of the Sabarmati river. Religion seems to be gaining a bigger space in the public discourse in Gujarat after Modi’s departure for Delhi, according to some observers.
A source in the BJP said that while it’s too early to determine a wider trend, the efforts of the Sangh parivar to re-establish its grip over Gujarat is more than a possibility.
Modi dealt with the VHP with an iron hand in the last few years, rendering the international secretary of the outfit Pravin Togadia a political pariah. As a matter of fact, Modi ensured a split in VHP with the anti-Togadia faction supporting the chief minister. This cut the outfit to size in a state where it used to have immense political clout.
In 2009, when the temples were demolished, the state police even arrested a VHP leader from north Gujarat just ahead of Diwali and kept him behind bars for a long time. It will be recalled that a controversy broke out in April after Togadia exhorted an audience in Bhavnagar to harass the Muslim buyer of a building in a Hindu area to force him to abandon the purchase.
But the VHP, uncharacteristically, doesn’t seem to be keen on making any public statements that could be seen as exploiting events to inflame opinion right now. Still, VHP state president Trivedi said, “Things are as it is getting bad.” He also raised the issue of cow slaughter.
“There are regular reports of seizure of beef and cow slaughter too has not stopped,” he said, adding that VHP will decide on its course of action after its leaders meet.
