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2) Ignored Warnings 3) Orissa, who cares?

Hindus sweep Masjid before handing it to Muslims

Agencies/Ahmedabad

Overwhelmed by the gesture shown by Muslims in providing succour to the quake–hit people of Gujarat, Hindus swept and scoured a Shahi Masjid and invited them to offer namaaz at the place of worship, situated in the communally sensitive Khadia area of the city.
Earlier, Muslims were scared of going to the mosque because of the area’s long–history of communal riots, said Amjad Ali Rajput, Rajpur ward chief of BJP’s minority cell here Thursday.
“However, the good Samaritan job done by Muslims in providing all possible help to their Hindu brethren had an impact and the Hindus of the locality on Sunday washed and cleaned the mosque before inviting us to offer prayers,” he said. 
Since then Muslims have been offering prayers at the Khadia Shahi masjid five times a day without any hesitation or fear, Amjad said.

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‘BJP govt wants RSS, VHP to get all the credit’

Girishbhai Patel
Lok Adhikar Sangh
Ahmedabad

It is a clear–cut strategy of the BJP that, at the cost of it’s own reputation, the government machinery should not work but the VHP and RSS should get credit for any relief and rehabilitation. Gujarat is crying for a different kind of leadership that can respond to the assaults by communalism and globalisation. Congress does not have people of vision and the BJP has no people, it has only mobs.
This government is functioning like a religious organisation. I am sure that large numbers of temples will come up in reconstruction!
Medha Patkar and myself have surveyed the situation. We feel that there is a surfeit of relief. But instead of awakening a scientific spirit among people, except for some established NGOs, relief is being distributed mostly by the RSS and the VHP and the Jamaat–e–Islami. In many villages, the Sai Baba Samiti and other religious and sectarian organisations have reached.
The real problem is going to be of reconstruction. To this end, some of us (Medha Patkar, Justice Ravani and myself) have made a public appeal: Let us seize this opportunity to reconstruct villages in a way that they become self–sustainable villages, in a way that they reflect the traditional framework, while not perpetuating the tradition–based caste discriminations. Let us not rely on corporate structure. We need to show vision and courage on the caste question, we cannot perpetuate discrimination.
We are privileged by a sharp constitutional vision on the question of equity, social justice and non–discrimination. We must not replicate the past.
This tragedy also brings into sharp focus the consequences of the new development paradigm that we have so blindly adopted. In Gujarat, we have had two cyclones, persistent drought. And yet, those who make decisions on our behalf do so at the cost of lives and resources. How do we build up an economy that does not cause so much damage to the people?

‘We don’t know when government help will come; we have to help ourselves’

Ramesh Savani
‘Batik’ craftsman
Mandvi, Kutch

“What is needed most is chappars, for temporary houses. Mandvi was spared but Dhamadka, Kothdi village, and similarly Daneti, Dudhai, Chobari are completely and severely damaged. We have just been to Bhavnagar and surveyed the ship-breaking yard and the scrap there. The malba (scrap) contains sheets of ply and other material that are lightweight yet durable, useful for our homes. We are planning to buy these in bulk, hire a lorry and take them to Dhamadka for our craftsmen, the Khatris and Hajaram. We don’t know when government help will come. We have to help ourselves. Our women and children are suffering sleeping out in the cold, how long can they do so? ”

‘Even three weeks after the damage we have received no relief’

Devji Premji
Vankar, Harijan 
Bhujodi village, Kutch

“Though our village is only nine kilometres away from Bhuj proper, even three weeks after the damage we have received no relief and only one visit from the Sai Baba Samiti. There are 200 vankars in the village. Seven or eight lives have been lost and nearly 30–40 per cent of the looms has been damaged. Ours is a total population of about 3,300; we have 1,900 Rabaris and 1,300 vankars. We need talpatris (covers for roofs) but not made of plastic as they melt in our heat, and columns made of material that do not attract white ants!”
‘The mamlatdar is selectively disbursing relief material only to the RSS and VHP’ Aslam Malik
Social worker Dasada, Surendranagar “We have completed a survey of 15 villages including Dasada, Vanod, Adhiraniya, Dhama, Jejuwada, Jenabad, Odhu and Patdi (a township of 20,000). This area is also within the constituency of an MLA and a minister hence the anger of people is palpable. It is the same story everywhere. These are villages dominated by Muslims and Dalits. Patdi is barely 90 kilometres from Ahmedabad; but the mamlatdar is selectively disbursing relief material only to the RSS and VHP. In Patdi, the mamlatdar goes on saying that 150 tents have been distributed, the collector dishes out a figure of 3,500. But where have the tents gone? They have not reached the people.  Locals have demanded a survey by the executive magistrate — the 92 villages under him should be visited. Where are the 5,000 that have been sent to the district collector, news of which has appeared from official sources in the press?”

‘The Muslim fisherfolk and Harijans from the Rann of Kutch have no one to help them’

Fr Cedric Prakash
St Xaviers Social Service Society
Ahmedabad

“Our team is also discovering villages which are out of the pale of relief, where people are still outside in the open. These are in the Rann of Kutch, the Nalya and Lakhpat villages. These villages have Rabaris, Darbars and Muslim populations. Now some influential communities like Darbars have connections outside. The Bhanushali community has samajs in Mumbai, they can garner help. But the Muslim Kolis (fisherfolk) and Harijans have no one to help them. Now, how has the RSS helped here? They have taken up one solitary village consisting of 350 people to concentrate on; this village has mainly Darbar families whom they want to help!” 

‘There are complaints that in common langars, Dalits and Muslims were asked to stand last’

Haroobhai Mehta
Senior advocate
Ahmedabad

“A general bias is visible. Maliya town near Morbi in Rajkot has a 60 per cent Muslims population, so here the government moved slowly. We have also received complaints that in common langars, Dalits and Muslims were asked to stand last. There was another example of the Mudra Masjid in Kutch district where Muslims who were receiving aid from the administration were physically stopped by the RSS and the VHP. There have also been reports of relief being diverted to trucks with the BJP Lotus or the RSS emblem. The whole issue is also of the reconstruction model which should not hurt the cultural setting and milieu of the people. But at the moment the whole situation is completely anarchic.”

‘The BJP government is blatantly in favour of the privileged sections’

Valjibhai Patel
Council for Social Justice
Ahmedabad

“In Adhoi village in Surendranagar, 80 per cent of the pucca houses were destroyed; 20 Dalits died as did some Kolis and Muslims. The Patels who are very prosperous have rehabilitated themselves on the other side of the highway and called the new settlement Udaipur. But there has been not even any elementary relief for the more marginalised sections. No tents have been received; people are still sleeping out in the cold. 
The Patels want the Dalits out. Why? The Dalits are living on good fertile land. The Patels are eyeing this land.
Our PIL will be filed in a few days. We want the court to apply the Indian Constitution in directing that in official rehabilitation efforts, an ideal village gets created. 
The BJP government is blatantly in favour of the privileged sections. The chief minister made a statement that was reported in the Sandesh (February 14) saying that those with more land and who own dairy cattle deserve more spacious home and land in rehabilitation schemes. A rehabilitation packet announced by the government gives 35,000 each under the Sardar Awaz Yojana for slum dwellers to rebuild homes, while big bungalow owners have been given Rs. 100,000 without interest!”