{"id":29885,"date":"2014-05-17T15:25:19","date_gmt":"2014-05-17T19:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=29885"},"modified":"2014-05-17T15:25:19","modified_gmt":"2014-05-17T19:25:19","slug":"muslims-in-gujerat-relief-camp-have-little-trust-or-hope-in-modi-the-man-who-would-be-prime-minister-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=29885","title":{"rendered":"Muslims in Gujerat Relief Camp Have Little Trust or Hope in Modi the Man Who Would be Prime Minister of India."},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/p>\n

Shashank Bengali <\/strong><\/p>\n

AHMEDABAD, India \u2014 <\/strong><\/p>\n

He was 12, too young to process the horror: Mobs of youths barely older than him swarmed his neighborhood with daggers and axes. Homes and the local mosque were ransacked and burned, bodies hacked to pieces, Hindu religious chants used as cries of war.<\/p>\n

Mansoor Shah Suleiman escaped the sectarian riots that shook Ahmedabad and settled with his family in the Citizen Nagar relief camp on the outskirts of the city. Twelve years later, they still reside there, in a spartan concrete room in the shadow of a 10-story garbage dump so fetid that relatives refuse to visit them.<\/p>\n

As much of Ahmedabad has flourished, the camp has become a permanent Muslim slum, forgotten by the authorities and suffocating the aspirations of young people like Suleiman, 24, who stitches shirts for $2 a day. In recent weeks, while Indians went to the polls in massive numbers to decide a pivotal national election, he cast his ballot with little enthusiasm, saying, \u201cThere is no hope for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The reason, many in the camp say, is the man who has ruled the western state of Gujarat since 2001 and is likely to emerge as India\u2019s next prime minister: Narendra Modi. He is an austere Hindu hard-liner whom critics accuse of allowing the attacks that killed hundreds of Muslims and forced tens of thousands from their homes in February 2002.<\/p>\n

Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, has denied complicity and been cleared of involvement by court inquiries, although questions persist about their objectivity.<\/p>\n

In a remarkable political turnaround, Modi has recast himself as a take-charge administrator, and according to exit polls released ahead of Friday\u2019s official results, he has led the conservative Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies to a convincing victory in the parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n

Of eligible voters, about two-thirds \u2014 some 540 million people \u2014 participated in six weeks of phased balloting that Indian officials often described as the world\u2019s largest and most complex democratic exercise. Poll workers traversed mountains, forests and deserts to carry ballot boxes to remote villages, while in urban areas the airwaves were blanketed by spirited election coverage.<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s record in spurring growth in booming Gujarat resonated with an India that has faltered in pursuit of its economic rival, China. Nevertheless, to many Muslims, liberals and proponents of a secular, pluralistic India, Modi\u2019s rise serves as a source of fear, leaving the vast and diverse nation divided after one of the most bitter political campaigns in its history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe election turned out to be a referendum on one person,\u201d said Sanjay Kumar, a political scientist and director of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, a New Delhi think tank.<\/p>\n

As a young man, Modi, who grew up dirt-poor as the son of a tea seller, left home to join the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing paramilitary organization that preaches Hindu superiority and demands asceticism in service of the nation. The group has been banned several times for inciting violence against non-Hindus, raising questions about Modi\u2019s willingness to represent the estimated 14 percent of Indians \u2014 about 175 million people \u2014 who are Muslim.<\/p>\n

During the campaign, Modi played down his ties to the group and bragged that Muslims fared better in Gujarat than anywhere else in the country. But he also said he would deport illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh while allowing Hindu migrants to remain in India. A party leader in the eastern state of Bihar said Modi\u2019s critics could \u201cgo to Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s biography stands in sharp contrast to that of his chief rival, Rahul Gandhi, dynast of the family that has led India for much of its post-independence history. Exit polls suggest Gandhi\u2019s left-leaning, scandal-plagued Indian National Congress party will suffer its worst showing ever.<\/p>\n

The 43-year-old Gandhi, grandson of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, may have matinee-idol looks, but it is the bearded firebrand Modi, two decades his senior, who possesses the star power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on a plane and when I told the South Indian guy next to me that I was Gujarati, he said, \u2018Oh, you\u2019ve got that very good chief minister,\u2019 \u201d said Jayesh Parikh, a chemicals entrepreneur and Modi supporter. \u201cHe\u2019s done a fantastic job of marketing himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barreling through India\u2019s legendary red tape, Modi promoted showy infrastructure projects and new factories that helped Gujarat, a traditionally entrepreneurial state, post growth rates and employment figures that outpaced national averages. Ahmedabad, a commercial hub choked with honking rickshaws and new luxury cars, has seen its population jump by half over the last decade, to 6 million people.<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s record was embraced by Indians who watched economic growth slide below 5 percent last year, well behind China\u2019s 7.8 percent, amid rising prices and persistent inflation.<\/p>\n

The \u201cVibrant Gujarat\u201d in Modi\u2019s marketing materials stops, however, at the farthest reaches of the city, where thousands of Muslims displaced by the 2002 riots continue to huddle in relief colonies like Citizen Nagar, disconnected from schools, transportation, medical facilities and basic municipal services.<\/p>\n

Suleiman, a sixth-grader when his family was driven from their home, went to live with relatives in another Muslim colony to continue his studies. Most students just dropped out, he said. The warren of concrete shacks and unpaved streets fills every afternoon with young men his age lazing on rusted chairs and idle rickshaws, with no jobs to go to.<\/p>\n

In the home he shares with his parents and three other family members, a dug-out latrine serves as the bathroom. Only recently, after a monthslong campaign by social workers and residents, did the city begin sending two trucks of potable water daily to the slum\u2019s 200 families.<\/p>\n

The difference between his neighborhood and a more prosperous one, Suleiman said, was simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo to any Hindu area and you\u2019ll see running water, street lights, paved roads,\u201d he said. \u201cIn all the Muslim areas, nothing has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last decade, Ahmedabad has become one of India\u2019s most segregated cities. While Hindus and Muslims live apart from each other in many parts of India \u2014 and communal violence breaks out periodically \u2014 in Ahmedabad the divisions are more systematic and even supported by law.<\/p>\n

After Hindu-Muslim clashes in 1991, Gujarati authorities enacted a policy known as the Disturbed Areas Act, which restricted the sale of a home in a riot-affected area to a member of another religious community. The law was aimed at preventing distress sales of property, but over time it has enforced barriers between Hindus, the overwhelming majority, and Muslims, who make up about one-seventh of Ahmedabad\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

Last year, Modi\u2019s government expanded the areas covered by the law to about 40 percent of the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelations between the communities are not normal,\u201d said Rajiv Shah, the former political editor in Gujarat for the Times of India, the country\u2019s leading daily newspaper. \u201cThere is no interaction between Hindus and Muslims except at very high income levels\u201d \u2014 where money trumps religion.<\/p>\n

Inamul Iraki, a Muslim entrepreneur and philanthropist who ran relief camps after the 2002 riots, said Modi had become more tolerant over the last decade.<\/p>\n

Of the riot victims, Iraki said: \u201cSome things we will have to leave behind. In this life, how far can you go by clinging to the past?\u201d His business partner is a prominent BJP leader in the state.<\/p>\n

Residents of Citizen Nagar remain unconvinced. Modi has rarely visited the relief camps in the 13 years he has led Gujarat and never expressed remorse for the deaths of Muslims.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs he not the reason we\u2019re suffering for all these years?\u201d asked 45-year-old Reshma Sayyed. \u201cWe can never trust him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Shashank Bengali AHMEDABAD, India \u2014 He was 12, too young to process the horror: Mobs of youths barely older than him swarmed his neighborhood with daggers and axes. Homes and the local mosque were ransacked and burned, bodies hacked to pieces, Hindu religious chants used as cries of war. Mansoor Shah Suleiman escaped the …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Muslims in Gujerat Relief Camp Have Little Trust or Hope in Modi the Man Who Would be Prime Minister of India.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29885"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29886,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29885\/revisions\/29886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}