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An Open Letter to Governor of Gujarat

By Syed Zeeshan Ahmed,

This open letter to Governor of Gujarat, Dr. Kamla Beniwal, questions her assertion, in her inaugural speech at the Budget Session 2011 of Gujarat Assembly on 24th Feb, that the Muslims living in Gujarat are better off than their co-religionists in other states of the country–Editor.

Text of the letter

An Open Letter to Her Excellency,
Dr. Kamla Beniwal,
Honourable Governor of Gujarat,
Gandhinagar.

Respected Madam,

In your address to the state assembly on the first day of the state budget-2011 session on February 24, you mentioned that the Muslims living in Gujarat were better off than their co-religionists in other states of the country.

The speech prepared by officials of your government with Narendra Modi as chief minister, which you read before the august assembly, intended to give a clean chit to Narendra Modi who has been facing criticism from all over the globe for 2002 anti-Muslim riots, one of the worst incidents of human rights violations in India.

It would have been quite appropriate to compare financial status of Gujarati Muslims with Gujarati Hindus. If Muslims in other states of India were financially poorer than Gujarati Muslims, so was the case with Hindus in other states of the country with their co-religionists in Gujarat. Gujarati Muslims had always performed better in trade and industry and if they are performing better even now, it is nothing to do with Modi government.



Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal (third from right) with Chief Minister Narendra Modi(Third from left) during the oath ceremony

In fact, Gujarati Muslims would have marched much ahead in economic activities if they would not have been subjected to planned genocide in which state government appeared to have played a role. You conveniently missed from your speech about 2002 carnage in which 1182 persons, most of them Muslims, were killed and properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees were destroyed and tens of thousands of Muslims dislocated. Hundreds of the riot victims are yet to be resettled and given compensation by both the state and central governments.

But coming back to your claim of Gujarati Muslims being better off than Muslims in other states, I would like to tell you that they would have performed still better had there been someone else other than Modi presiding over the state’s administration with no prejudice and bias against Muslims. In fact, what the Muslims of Gujarat have achieved is despite the obstructions put up by Modi at every level.

But if you mean to say that Muslims are growing because of the pro-development policies of the Modi government, then I would like to inform you that Muslim localities in the state are deliberately being denied development. Being head of the state, I would like to ask you why are no developmental activities being carried in Muslim localities of the state?

Because of the systematic discrimination, Muslim areas have become slums. You need not go far to know about it. You just have to drive 35 kms to be exact from your residence in state capital of Gandhinagar to Juhapura in Ahmedabad to know the ground realities. Juhapura is a completely Muslim locality but it has no metalled roads and streets. Potable drinking water supply and street light are missing. There is not even a single government school or dispensary in the locality with a population of about four lakhs. But the adjoining non-Muslim areas have been provided all the facilities adequately. Same is the situation in Muslim localities in old Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Roads and streets in Muslim pockets are totally in bad shape.

Respected Madam, Muslims in Gujarat are treated as second class citizens. You know well that 94 Muslim accused in Sabarmati train carnage were kept in jail for nine years and 63 of them were declared innocent and released by a special court recently, but could you tell me how many accused involved in other major offences like brutal murder of former MP Ehsan Jafri along with 69 others in Gulberg Society, mass massacre of 109 Muslims in Naroda Patiya and killing of 11 Muslims in Naroda Gam are in jail? Babu Bajrangi who confessed on Tehelka tapes of his role in Naroda Patiya massacre is roaming free. BJP MLA Mayaben Kodnani involved in Naroda Patiya was made a minister by the Modi government. She resigned only after the court ordered her arrest. She was later granted bail by the court.
Again, while Godhra accused and some others involved in tiffin bomb case in Ahmedabad were booked under POTA because all of them happened to be Muslims, none of the accused involved in massacre of Muslims were booked under POTA though their offences were no less severe. They were all booked under provisions of Indian Penal Code under which securing bail is easier but no bail can be given under POTA. So, POTA was selectively misused to harass Muslims in Modi’s Gujarat. It is a different thing that the draconian law has been withdrawn by the UPA government at the centre.

Modi government has also allotted hundreds of acres of land to several industrialists from Ratan Tata to Gautam Adani and others. Could you name a single Muslim industrialist allotted land for industries at subsidized rates?
In fact, there is an undeclared ban on Muslims purchasing properties and houses in non-Muslim localities. Certain laws have been passed by the state assembly during your tenure as governor that have made difficult to buy Hindu properties by Muslims, thus restricting Muslims from expanding beyond the boundaries of their ghettos. How can Muslims develop and grow if they are not allowed to mix up with other citizens?

There are innumerable incidents of Muslim graveyards being forcibly occupied by the state government agencies on the pretext of development and by private persons with police support. In Dahod bordering Rajasthan, local municipality forcibly built a road through the mid of a graveyard hurting the sentiments of the local Muslims as the road covered dozens of graves. The Modi government has yet not rebuilt the tomb of Urdu poet Vali Gujarat which was demolished by a mob and a metalled road constructed over it by using the equipments and construction materials of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation during 2002 riots. Surprisingly, the tomb was located just in front of the Ahmedabad police commissioner’s office.

Not only that, while two big illegal temples have come up on the roadside in front of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), the AMC two months ago demolished the only mosque in Sabarmati area constructed over a private land.

When bomb blasts took place outside a mosque at Modasa in September 2008, police harassed hundreds of Muslims. However, it gave up the investigation when the clue reached up to Hindutva leader Swami Aseemanand. It is a shame that the Gujarat police which claimed to have solved the mystery behind serial bomb blasts of July 2008 in Ahmedabad, expressed its helplessness in Modasa blast. Had National Investigative Agency not handed over the investigation, Modasa blast case would have never been solved. I suspect the hands of the same group in Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts as well who planned and carried out Modasa blast. But it requires an honest investigation by some central agencies.

Honourable Madam, you know well how Gujarat police officials were involved in fake encounters of Muslims and more than two dozens of guilty police men, including three IPS officioals are in jail in connection with Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s fake encounter and cold-blooded murder of his wife. Similarly, the case of Ishrat Jahan’s alleged fake encounter is under re-investigation on apex court’s directions. Do you think any community can grow and prosper in such an atmosphere of terror resorted to by state law and order agencies.

[Photo Courtesy:www.patrika.com]