|
HTML clipboard
The shadow of the massacres still hang over
Gujarat as its turn comes today
to vote in India's elections AHMEDABAD, India (AFP) — No politician campaigns for votes in the
slums of Ahmedabad that are home to Muslims displaced by mobs of
rampaging Hindus.
Since 2002, when the worst riots since India's
partition left an estimated 2,000 Muslims dead in the western state of
Gujarat, thousands have been pushed off the map -- and have little
faith in the world's largest democracy.
"How would you feel if
you have to live below a mountain of litter and drink polluted water
everyday?" said Riana Bano, a Muslim widow and mother of four girls.
Bano's husband was murdered and the family house looted by Hindu fanatics in the communal riots that swept across the state.
The
pogrom was in retaliation for an alleged attack by Muslims on a train
that left 59 Hindus dead, although a central government probe later
found the train fire to be an accident.
But it's a story that
won't go away, with the shadow of the massacres still hanging over the
state as its turn comes on Thursday to vote in India's month-long
general elections.
On Monday, India's top court ordered a fresh
probe into the role of Gujarat's hardline chief minister Narendra Modi
-- seen by BJP supporters as a possible future prime minister -- and 60
others accused in one of the 1,400 riot cases registered by the police.
But
many Muslims here, some of whom are still trying get their complaints
heard in court, say they have little hope the chapter will be
satisfactorily closed.
"These court orders and elections bring no
change in the lives of Muslims -- most of
whom suffer from various
health ailments and chronic depression," said Rama Sen, who runs a
school for riot-affected children in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city.
While
the state government, run by the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), stands accused of turning a blind eye to the
killings and even orchestrating the riots, Muslims see little to root
for in the other parties.
The incumbent Congress party, for
example, has been accused of only paying an interest in the lives of
Muslims at election time -- promising more jobs, better opportunities
and improved safety.
Muslim community leaders in Gujarat and
across the country say those promises have not been translated into
real improvements in the situation of the country's largest minority.
"I
will not caste my vote. Voting will bring no difference to my life,"
said Sheikh Abdul Majid, who lives in a fly-infested house in Ahmedabad
and feeds his children with stale food he picks up in the nearby dump.
Majid
said that although the train fire was deemed by an official probe to be
an accident, his young son was arrested by local police for allegedly
causing the fire -- in line with the BJP's view that Muslims were to
blame.
He said his son has been held without trial since 2003,
while most Hindus accused of killing Muslims and burning their houses
have been released.
"Courts will pass orders, a new government
will be formed, promises will be made to us," said Hijam Sheikh a
Muslim sweeper who said he witnessed the murder of his pregnant wife by
a Hindu mob in 2002.
"But nothing changes here."
 Be first to comment this article |  Add as favourites (22) |  Quote this article on your site | Views: 63
|
