Vadodara-Some Thoughts

The riots in Vadodara seem to be over and the city is slowly limping back to normalcy. The Gujarat administration with little prodding from the center seem to have acted with some urgency, for a change. Thank God for small mercies.

Unfortunately, the riots and the memories of Gujarat 2002 has served to obfuscate the real issue. A Dargaah which was allegedy an encroachment was demolished. The Muslims protested, not exactly non-violently and as it is the norm in India, it soon acquired religious connotations. With Modi’s reputation being what it is, it soon became a Modi V’s the rest issue. We find it both sad and idiotic.

Religious structures in India have long been used for land grabbing. I can offhand recall at-least ten temples in Delhi which are a traffic nuisance but will not be removed because someone’ religious feeling will be hurt by it. In-fact, I remember a slum near our home in Delhi, on which demolition orders were passed. Lo and behold, that very night, a temple came up, which sure enough stopped the demolition team dead in its track. The funniest thing? The slum was mainly inhabited by Bangladeshi Muslims, who probably thought contructing a make shift temple was faster, and more effective than constructing a Masjid as Delhi had a BJP government during those days!

Indian Express today has a lovely tale on the religious structure encroachment business.

”The temple, which earned a specific observation from the Gujarat High Court, stands on the roadside, is a traffic bottleneck and was built without approaching the owner. The land is owned by an institute, which says it complained to the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). So what was AUDA doing during the 10 months when it was being constructed? What it’s doing now: Nothing.”

So, this temple was not only constructed illegally, but also by encroaching on a institue’s land!

Now why should someone’ religious feeling be hurt if such a temple is demolished?

The Gujraat High Court taking suo motto notice of such constructions, ordered their demolition all across the state. Instead of following the order, the Center promptly went to the Supreme Court and obtained a stay order in the name of not inflaming religious passions. Pah!

Could anyone explain to us what is more important? Faster traffic or a religious structure? Don’t we have enough of those anyways? No one is talking about demolishing Jama Masjid or the Birla Temple, but road side dilapidated structures which have not more than a few followers beneficiaries.

I have little hopes from our mainstream media, they seem to do more flipflops than our politicians(with the honorable exception of IE), but even across blogsphere, the nonsense continues.

Desi Pundit today has linked to a piece by Indian Muslim, which is little more than a litany of half-truths, conspiracy theories and gross generalizations.

”But the trouble comes when the road has to be further widened from double lane to four lane or six lane. Naturally the structure has to be accommodated in a traffic island. This particular dargaah is a 200-year-old structure but everyone keeps on saying that it is illegal. How come such an old structure be an encroachment”

Let us for a minute accept that the Dargaah was 200 years old and was not an encroachment in the legal sense. So, what? Was it obstructing traffic, sure as hell it was.(The blogger has offered no such refutation). Could he please tell me, how have the dams or the national highways in India come up? Has not the government acquired people’s land, their homes in the name of greater good? If that is justified, then demolishing a road side Dargaah is certainly justified. What about the Narmada dam? How is it coming up?

He continues further-

”So his force shoots people, Indian citizens, in the head. And he is justifying that. Does he understands the trauma of those whose kin were killed and is he not aware of the rules about ordering fire and that it should not be targeted in the chest or head? The cops were clearly seen aiming at the heads of protesting people.”

Now, this is a very strong accusation. The least which was expected from the blogger was to provide us some proof, some links. But, the blogger accuses the police of deliberating targetting people to kill them without offering an iota of proof. That is ridiculous in my book.

A lit bit of googling reveals this. The total number of dead in the riots are six of which only two fell to police bullets.

From the Times of India-

”At least four people were killed and more than 30 injured in police firing and violent clashes in other sensitive parts of the city. Two of the dead had bullet injuries and the other two stab wounds.

Most of the injured had bullet injuries in their legs.

Eh? Now I am confused? OK, I am confused, but still will the blogger tell us how he reached the conclusion that ”cops were clearly aiming at the heads of people”. Maybe, they were terrible shots, but this bad? Just because two people were killed? And mind you, they are not exactly protesting in a peaceful manner. Or has the public the right to indulge in stone pelting and arson?

But, no, it gets better. And this was in bold.

”Provoke Muslims, spread falsehoods about them, label a structure as unauthorised and when they protest you kill them. That’s a solution exactly from the Hitler’s book”

Eh? Now logic is not clearly the blogger’s strong point but still at-least some semblance of it is still expected. Protest? Was it a peaceful protest? Did they take recourse to the law? If they felt they had such a strong case, why did not they approach the courts? Even in Modi’s Gujarat,the higher courts are not to be trifled with. So, why did not they do it?

Infact, here is the funny part. The said demolitions were ordered by the Gujarat High Court!

And the climax

”the section of lumpened middle-class Hindu hates Muslims that is a well-known fact so all this would boost the morale of the Pride Gujarati and thus the government and the BJP would get mileage. The message is clear ‘It is Gujarat, Hindu state and we will do whatever we want’. But what one expects from this state where people are so communalised. Where this hate will take the Gujarat and the Gujaratis? ”

Apart from being racist, coming from a site which calls itself ”Indian Muslim” it is a rich. Sure, we have as much sympathy for you as we have for VHP. Pah! I mean seriously, I would never visit a site which claims to speak for Hindus, why should not the same yardstick apply for Muslims? A party/site which claims to speak for one particular community is racist/non-secular in my book.

So, what is our point? Every religious structure which is illegal/nuisance should be demolished, the only caveat being historical importance.(1). I would have been happy if the blogger had come out against the Modi administration and pointed out incidents like these and demanded equal treatment. Instead, he has chosen the lazy way, unfortunately. The way the drive was run was not perfect but does that mean the concept becomes wrong?

In conclusion, anyone who is offended if his religions’ religious structure is demolished for development(and road widening is development) or because it is illegal , please buy a piece of land and shift it there.

Let the rest of us live in peace.

p.s And seriously, are bloggers not supposed to offer some proof for their theories. I mean, people seem to draw all conclusions without offering any proof at all.

(1) A structure being 200 years old does not mean it is of historical importance. By that yardstick, we should never demolish our old homes!