Guj riots: Communal amity is integral to Ode, says acquitted villager

"Check the police records of the past 25 years of Ode village and study them. You will not find a single complaint filed by a person from Patel community against any person belonging to Muslim community or vice versa. No complaints had been registered before March 1, 2002 and March 2, 2002 by anyone,” said Hirubhai Patel, a farmer of Ode.

Patel was one of the 47 accused in the Ode massacre case and one of the 23 people who have been acquitted by the court. However, he is in no mood to celebrate the verdict. “All those convicted are from our village. They are, in a sense, our relatives. This village never witnessed any communal clashes among the Hindu and Muslim residents. Neither we had any issue with the members of Muslim community in the past nor will we have any in the future," he said.

In fact, Hiriubhai, tired of the long legal battle, is now trying to reconcile with the fact that communal amity is the best choice. He cites the example where his partner in agriculture is Habib Balol from Nadiad.

“Habibbhai and I are partners for more than 20 years. Even when the case was on, he used to be one of the first few people who would call me and enquire about the status. The incident has not affected our relationship. Thirty workers from the Muslim community work in my farms. There is no issue or hatred between the two communities,” Patel said.

Not only this, Mohammadkhan Pathan, a witnesses and a victim of Ode massacre, supported Patel’s claims. “I used to lend my farm to Hirubhai and he would carry out farming for long. For the past 15 years, Hirubhai has been carrying out agricultural activities in my land on shared basis. Even after the massacre, he continued to have my farmland and carried out farming for three years,” Pathan says.

Balol said, “For the many years, we are procuring agricultural produce from Ode. I knew it from the beginning that Hirubhai could never be involved in such a crime. There has never been any difference between us.

Apart from business partnership, we have family relations as well.”

Patel said, “I want to say that we all have been fixed in the case because of politics. Most of us are from financially sound background. We were influential in the village, but were never into active politics. You can ask any of the victims. All I want to say is that if anyone of us was aware of what was happening or about to happen, we would not have let that incident happen.”

Talking about the current situation, Patel said: “Neither any of the convicted people nor their family members have uttered a word to anyone in the village. We have decided to observe silence on the issue as no one from either the Patel community or Muslim community is interested in taking this issue further. Everyone wants to do their own business and live peacefully. We (Patels and Muslims) are familiar with each other for years and understand each other well.”