Riot riddles

There is bafflement how an incident of extortion could have sparked riots in Ahmedabad, writes Manas Dasgupta.

THE GUJARAT Government and even the people in general are baffled how an incident of extortion of money from roadside vendors could assume communal overtones and spark riots in mixed localities of old Ahmedabad city.

Except for the fact that the majority of the petty vendors happened to be Muslims and most of the alleged attackers were believed to be Hindus, there apparently was no communal factor involved in the Vatva industrial area incident of last week that ignited the communal disturbances in the old city areas.

In fact, after the attack on the petty vendors, the Vatva area did not witness any other disturbances on the subsequent days when the old city areas observed a bandh. And when the Dariapur locality was under curfew, life was near-normal in the adjoining areas in the walled city while in the posh western suburbs the people moved about unmindful of the happenings in the old city.

The disturbances started a day after some ``patharanwallahs'' (petty vendors on the roadsides) were attacked by about a dozen persons wielding knives, pipes, and lathis on Cadila bridge in the Vatva industrial area. The initial reports suggested the incident was a Bollywood film-type case of extortion of money by anti-social elements from the poor vendors.

In fact, most of the vendors who had started business in Vatva over the last few months were earlier selling their merchandise in Teen Darwaja, the city's main market area, but were chased out either by fellow ``patharanwallahs'' due to over-congestion or by other anti-social elements who were similarly extorting ``protection money'' there.

The initial complaint lodged with the Vatva police did not mention involvement of any political group in the incident and the police claimed that from the type of attack carried out, in which one of the persons succumbed to stab injuries in hospital four days later, it seemed to be the act of a criminal gang. The four persons arrested later in connection with the attack were also claimed to be local anti-social elements who may or may not have links with the Bajrang Dal.

But a whispering campaign was launched that the attack was carried out by Bajrang Dal activists armed with ``tridents'' because Muslim vendors refused to donate for celebrating Ganesh Chathurthi. Though among the injured were some Hindu vendors also, the incident was given a communal colour and pamphlets written in the name of an unknown Muslim Youth Association, but without any print line, were widely distributed giving a call for a protest bandh only in the Muslim-dominated old city areas.

Though the official organisation of Muslim traders promptly issued denials and disassociated itself with the bandh call, the authorities were surprised to find that the response from the Muslim traders in almost all the areas in the old city was near- total while most of the Hindu shops remained open. To whip up Hindu passions, rumours were also spread about the alleged attack on a roadside Hanuman temple in Mirzapur area which turned out to be a hoax, one of its flag-poles having been partly damaged by a vehicle trying to reverse in the narrow lane.

While the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have denied the involvement of any constituent of the Sangh Parivar in the attack, the Pradesh Congress vice-president, Mr. Hasmukh Patel, however, alleged that it was the handiwork of the Bajrang Dal. He also alleged that with the BJP in power, the actual attackers would never be arrested and only those whose links with the Sangh Parivar could not be established would be taken into custody just to show that Hindu fundamentalists were not involved.

The Joint Police Commissioner, Mr. M. K. Tandon, said ``we are looking into it from the crime angle which had been given a political colour''. In hindsight, the police now claim the preparation for the bandh had been elaborate, that it could not have succeeded without the tacit approval of the Muslim leaders. The support of the Congress to make the bandh a success is also not ruled out.

The truth may never come out even in the inquiry by the State Intelligence Bureau chief, Mr. G. C. Raigar, but the influence of the Bajrang Dal in re-kindling communal passions cannot perhaps be underestimated. The ``recruitment drive'' launched by the Dal in the State as part of its nationwide operation to register at least 30 lakh fresh volunteers, many of whom have also been presented with ``trishuls'' (tridents), has resulted in communalising the situation afresh.

Only about a week before the incident, a recruitment camp was organised in Vatva by the Dal. Several rallies were taken out by trident-wielding activists, including through the Muslim- dominated areas as a show of strength.

This is believed to have activated the dormant ``Adam Sena'' to protect the minorities in the mixed areas in the walled city where the two communities now have almost an equal share of population after a large number of wealthy Hindu families moved out to the posh western suburbs. Though the Act to curb distress sale of real estate in view of the communal sensitivity of the areas is still in force, the change of ownership by issuing power of attorney cannot be stopped and, due to the sheer proximity of the locations, in a majority of the cases the ancestral property of Hindus has gone to Muslims.

Ahmedabad and many other parts of Gujarat are known to be communally sensitive. But the State has not witnessed a major communal flare-up since the January 1993 riots. However, there has been a significant rise in the incidents of Sangh Parivar activists attacking Christians, mainly in the tribal-dominated south Gujarat areas. The incidents such as burning of a Muslim hotel by a Dal activist in Ahmedabad, the elopement of a Hindu girl with a Muslim boy in Navsari or the clashes in Jambusar, Broach, or Idar remained localised and did not become major flare-ups.

Typically, the State Minister for Home, Mr. Haren Pandya, has alleged that the latest incident in Ahmedabad was ``pre-planned'' by Pakistan-sponsored agencies.

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