At first sight, the Vadodara incident and the deaths of five persons seem to be a tragic consequence of misguided religious zeal. The demolition of a Muslim dargah was apparently undertaken to decongest roads. As part of this, Hindu temples were also removed. On the face of it, there’s no harm in such a move. As a city develops, structures and buildings need to be relocated with the concurrence of the neighbourhood and community leaders. Pulling down religious places anywhere in the world is a sensitive issue that needs to be handled with great care and reasoned argument. This is doubly so for Gujarat, keeping in mind the many months of turmoil and communal tensions that have rocked the state in the recent past. It’s reasonable to assume then that a pasted demolition notice on the dargah wall would inflame passions.
In this sense, the violence and deaths are an indictment of Narendra Modi and the BJP. They have singularly failed to restore the communal harmony that their own acts of commission and omission destroyed in the aftermath of the Godhra massacre in 2002. Indeed, last week, the man who failed to provide security to the Muslim community in Ahmedabad was promoted as the Director-General of the state police. Given these circumstances and the climate of distrust that prevails between the state government and the Muslim community, it is easy for any situation to spin out of control. It is this distrust that may have prompted the keepers of the more-than-200-year-old dargah and the local community to feel that they were ‘targeted’. The less-than-sensitive approach that the municipal corporation seems to have adopted probably played a part in consensus not being reached with the Muslim leaders.
The authorities could have adopted a far more conciliatory approach. If relocation of the dargah was an option, it should have been discussed with the Muslim leaders in advance of the notice, instead of waiting for a meeting to take place in an already charged atmosphere. Equally, it is the Muslim leaders’ responsibility to see to it that such a drive, which may be considered routine in any other state, is not perceived as an ‘attack’ and that reasonable solutions, including physical relocation of the dargah, considered. But this kind of a give and take can only happen in a climate of trust between communities, and between the Muslims and the state government.
{{/usCountry}}The authorities could have adopted a far more conciliatory approach. If relocation of the dargah was an option, it should have been discussed with the Muslim leaders in advance of the notice, instead of waiting for a meeting to take place in an already charged atmosphere. Equally, it is the Muslim leaders’ responsibility to see to it that such a drive, which may be considered routine in any other state, is not perceived as an ‘attack’ and that reasonable solutions, including physical relocation of the dargah, considered. But this kind of a give and take can only happen in a climate of trust between communities, and between the Muslims and the state government.
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