“Go to Pakistan” said a character to his Muslim friend in Rang De Basanti. The reality in Gujarat cannot be more similar.
AHMDEADABAD: “Go to Pakistan” said a character to his Muslim friend in Rang De Basanti. The reality in Gujarat cannot be more similar.
When people were being attacked and killed in Vadodara, the police returned their desperate calls for help saying, “Go to Pakistan.”
The mobs in the streets of Gujarat in 2002 made it obvious that communalism has seeped deep within the psyche of this state. But there was a hope that the administration cannot be so prejudiced. On May 1, Gujarat’s foundation day, this hope crumbled for many in Vadodara.
Most intellectuals in Gujarat’s increasingly sensitive and polarised society believe that taunts like “Go to Pakistan,” is the worst insult for any Muslim who has chosen to stay in India or who has been born in India.
“It’s an insult for all Muslims. Why should they be asked to go to Pakistan? We should not forget that these Muslims are as much Gujarati or Indian as the Hindus. What relevance has Pakistan for a common man?” questions writer and historian Achyut Yagnik.
Hanif Lakdawala, a medico by profession who gave up private practice to work for the marginalised sections of the society, says, “Communal hatred goes deeper. Those who are born and brought up here, what do they have to do with Pakistan? How can they be told such a thing? This is not just ridiculous but humiliating too. We have contributed to our country as much as others. I have spent my life serving all the communities. I was not even born when Pakistan was created. We have no love for that particular nation - it is as alien as US and UK.”
Pain is writ large on faces of people who have by choice not gone to Pakistan but have preferred to stay on in India. Eighty one-year-old senior advocate, Mohamad Hanif says, “I am the general secretary of Gujarat Jamait-e-ulema, which opposed the partition of India and the formation of Pakistan. Although I have lived in Vadodara for long, I feel it is growing increasingly insecure.”
But the police discard the allegations of bias and insults as baseless. Vadodara police commissioner Deepak Swaroop says, "This is the most absurd allegation that I have ever heard against the police. We have been neutral.”
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}