RIOT-HIT MUSLIMS STAY INDOOR DURING GUJARAT CIVIC POLLS

For 70-year-old Rajobibi Saiyed of Naroda Gam, which was one of the worst-affected localities in Ahmedabad during the 2002 communal riots, the scars continue to keep her indifferent to polls, a national daily reported on October 11. “I remember how my sons and daughters were dragged into police vans and beaten up severely. I was…

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August 16, 2022

For 70-year-old Rajobibi Saiyed of Naroda Gam, which was one of the worst-affected localities in Ahmedabad during the 2002 communal riots, the scars continue to keep her indifferent to polls, a national daily reported on October 11. “I remember how my sons and daughters were dragged into police vans and beaten up severely. I was also taken to the police station for no reason. I cannot forget it. We fled and remained away from Juhapura for five days when the Ayodhya verdict came, as we were scared we would be put to it all again. We have no wish to raise issues like no water, sanitation and drainage in our area because we are not secure here anyway,” said Rajobibi told the daily. She was not alone to keep away from the polling booths. Several other families in this Muslim ghetto also did not vote. The scene was no different in other areas hit by the riots like Naroda Patiya and Gulberg Society, where survival concerns continue to trivialise civic woes. In Gulberg Society, the lone family that still stays there amid the gutted remains of homes has stopped voting since 2002. “I stopped voting in any election after the riots. We don’t care who comes to power because nobody would care for us. The (Narendra) Modi government doesn’t even bother to come and see what condition we are living in. I wouldn’t move from this place till the people who died in this society get justice,” said Rafiq Kasam Mansoori, adding that 19 of his family members were among the 69 people massacred in the riots.

The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee on October 14 raked up the issue of alleged “tampering” of the electronic voting machines, holding this factor responsible for the party’s debacle in the just-concluded elections to the six municipal corporations. “It was not ‘Modi magic,’ but ‘machine magic’ that caused the Congress defeat in the civic elections,” State party president Siddhartha Patel, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Shaktisinh Gohil, and the former Chief Minister, Shankarsinh Waghela, told journalists.