AHMEDABAD, 18 November 2007 — In scenes reminiscent of apartheid South Africa, the Gujarati city of Ahmedabad, the home of Mahatma Gandhi, has ironically been flooded with billboards designating sections of the city according to religious backgrounds and promising to make Gujarat a Hindu state.
In the run up to coming Gujarat Assembly elections, scheduled for the first week of December, the billboards are aimed at inciting communal passion to polarize Hindu votes in favor of the ruling BJP. The billboards have been sponsored by the BJP’s radical Hindutva associates, such as Shiv Sena, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal.
“Is this a sign of things to come? Not far from Sabarmati Ashram where Mahatma Gandhi used to live, visitors are greeted by a huge board put up by the Shiv Sena in Ahmedabad’s Ranip area, promising to make Gujarat a Hindu state,” said Alpesh, a local activist. “And just opposite that board is another one declaring the area to be a Hindu zone.”
Interestingly, the Election Commission, which has banned the use of SMS text messages as a mode of campaigning in the state, has failed to take note of the communally charged boards. However, some boards have been removed in Ahmedabad after Alpesh filed a petition under RTI Act (Right to Information Act) three weeks ago. Most billboards still stand high and tall.
One board set up by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal on the Naroda Highway, one of the worst affected areas during the 2002 communal riots, urges people to loudly proclaim they are Hindu. “This is sending a wrong message to the Muslim minority here. This board is surely there to intimidate minorities, there is no other reason,” said Shabnam Hashmi, another activist.
In 2002, over 2,000 Muslims were killed during Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat, centering around Ahmedabad. Bhaskar Bhatt, the corporator from Saraspur in Ahmedabad, believes there is nothing unusual about the boards. “There’s nothing unusual about this. They are all over Gujarat and not just in my area,” he said. An indication that such boards are prevalent across the state with the authorities turning a blind eye.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has announced it will hear on Dec. 3 and 4 complaints about the non-enrolment on the electoral roll the names of people affected by the 2002 riots and now living in resettlement colonies in Ahmedabad. The complaints made by various relief agencies said the victims had lost their proofs of identity, which is one of the reasons why their names were not included in the election roll in the December 2002 elections.
