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'We try to rebuild mutual faith and then another riot starts destroying our work'

This is the second of a three-part series on the Ahmedabad riots. Click to read from the beginning.

I think it all began with the telecast of the Ramayan and other Hindu religious serials. They were hugely popular and the religious sentiments were exploited by the politicians."

College lecturer Suman Desai and his wife Pratima, who works at the Indian Institute of Management, were speaking about the division of Ahmedabad into 'Hindu Ahmedabad' and 'Muslim Ahmedabad' -- communal violence was forcing people to cluster together on religious basis.

"This segregation is undesirable and does not reflect well on the city," Pratima said.

Unfortunately, the issue is seldom discussed. Most of the citizens have come to accept the separation as inevitable. This is due to the frequent recurrence of communal riots. After every riot, the city's development and progressive thinking goes back by five years.

"We tried to rebuild mutual faith and confidence and then another riot starts destroying all our work," complained a social worker.

During the last 10 years, more than 1,000 people have been killed in communal riots and several thousands injured. The people no longer have any confidence in the government, any government. To them, the best way to avoid trouble is to move to safer areas and live with the members of their own community.

Any cause is enough to ignite communal riots. In the past, the anti-reservation struggle turned communal and took a heavy toll. L K Advani's rath yatra, the Ayodhya issue and the demolition of the Babri Masjid created major riots. After the BJP came to power, both at the Centre and the state, Christians were targeted. Churches were burnt and property damaged. Every single Hindu or Muslim festival created tension.

When Ahmedabad celebrated the rath yatra in July, the crowds numbering over 60,000 were controlled by a police force of 7,000, as well as units of the Central Reserve Police and the Rapid Action Force. Fortunately, there were no incidents, but considerable tension was caused when Hindu mobs shouted obscene anti-Muslim slogans as the procession passed through Muslim areas.

The most recent riots, which began on July 20, puzzled even the police and the people. There was no obvious provocation. What about the Kargil factor?

As India went on winning the Kargil war, Hindu extremist elements identified local Muslims with Pakistan and showered abuses on them, despite the fact that the Muslims had enthusiastically participated in Kargil fund collections, shouting anti-Pak slogans and expressing solidarity with the Indian cause. Yet, at every place where the effigy of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief was burnt, Hindu mobs heckled local Muslims. There was considerable resentment among the Muslims, but whether anyone of them started the riots needs to be discovered.

The BJP government in the state is led by Keshubhai Patel, a hardcore Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh man. His home minister, Haren Pandya, is also from the RSS. Despite claiming to have taken remedial steps at all levels, the government has done nothing to check the communal divide.

Alleges Ashraff Sayed, "There is not one Muslim, Christian or Dalit among the bureaucrats holding major decision-making jobs. The government effected 27,000 transfers during its tenure. Officials from the minorities are now holding insignificant posts."

Top-ranking bureaucrats in the Sachivalaya did not want to be quoted, but it was clear that they were unhappy with the way the government functioned.

"There is interference at every level," explained one senior officer. "Politicians controlled the police and the administration. It reflects badly on the bureaucracy."

Was there an intelligence failure during the current riots?

The Intelligence Bureau did warn the government about trouble during the rath yatra, but nothing happened. But it was clear that the IB was in bad shape. It was manned by 'rejects' from other sections because the Bureau was viewed as a 'punishment posting' with no scope for baksheesh. Yet, the IB appeared to have done its work.

It is now investigating the identity of persons who were behind the dozens of stabbing incidents. Home Minister Pandya's claim that strict instructions were issued to the police not to bow down to political interference is not taken seriously. At least during the early days of the riots, politicians of different hues bullied low-ranking policemen to release their friends who had been arrested. Later on, the government order did have some impact. Perhaps, it was this action which prompted VHP leaders to accuse the state government of protecting 'pro-Pakistan elements', a preposterous charge.

The VHP was irked because more Hindus were stabbed than Muslims. This time, the 'outsider' theory was discounted. The eight people who were killed were presumed to have died at the hands of local goondas. In most cases, the victims were innocent outsiders who had strayed into tense areas.

On July 22, Nageswar Rao was killed. The discovery of the body of a Muslim youth with stab wounds led to retaliatory acts of violence on Hindus. But an innocent Muslim tailor was doused with kerosene and set on fire. He is now struggling for life in the hospital. So is a Hindu chanawala, who was dragged out of an autorickshaw and stabbed. In Jaunpura area, a bangle-seller who argued with some Muslim women over payment for his wares was set upon by local thugs and had his tongue chopped off.

But such incidents remained localised and did not spread outside the city. There were no bomb blasts either, though a mill godown when raided yielded dozens of bottles of kerosene and other inflammatory materials.

Suddenly many Hindus saw Muslims as foreign aggressors

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