No riots in Gujarat post 2002, claims Modi; govt data begs to disagree

In a podcast with Leix Fridman, Indian Prime Minister Narenddra Modi said there have been no riots in Gujarat post 2002. But for Hussainbhai Rahimwala Sheikh, the reality is very different.

Sheikh's was among the 50 Muslim families that had to flee Vadavali, a village in Patan in North Gujarat, on March 25-26, 2017, after communal riots broke out.

In a conversation with The Federal, the family, which had survived the 2002 mayhem, relived the horror when a mob of about 100 men attacked Muslim homes in the village. In three hours, the 80 homes were ransacked and gutted, two Muslim men killed and almost all shops belonging to Muslims looted.

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Recalling mob frenzy

“We came to Vadavali after the 2002 riots as it was peaceful and the riots had not impacted the village. We rebuilt our lives from scratch and watched it go up in smoke in matter of hours just like in 2002. We fled to Kalol (Gandhinagar) to a relatives’ place and stayed there for six months,” recalled Sheikh, who now lives in Kalol and never returned to Vadavali.

A week from the Vadavali frenzy, another communal riot broke out at Vadagam in Aravalli district, also in North Gujarat, forcing 35 Sindhi Muslim families to flee the village.

Escaped to forest

“We had been living in peace until a minor girl from the village passed my home on March 29 and claimed that Akbar, my son, had harassed her. That evening, around 25 people, including the girl’s family, came and abused me and thrashed Akbar," Allubhai, another resident, told The Federal.

"At night, another group arrived demanding that Akbar be handed over. To maintain peace, Akbar and I accompanied them. They thrashed us for half an hour and left. A bigger mob of about 500 came with wooden staffs, swords and pipes. Twelve people were injured in the attack,” recalled Allubhai, who took refuge in a forest for 22 days with another Muslim family until a rights organisation found them.

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Communal hoardings

Hozefa Ujjaini, a Gujarat-based rights activist, told The Federal they tried to counsel the fear-stricken families to return to the village.

By then, multiple boards had been put up between Dhansura and Vadagam – a stretch of about 8 km. These read: “Hindu Rashtra ke Vadagam, Dhansura, Harsol aur Talod me apka swagat hai (Welcome to Hindu Rashtra’s Vadagam, Harsol and Talod.")

The activist said when he mentioned this to the district collector, he was accused of trying to ignite communal tensions again.

Home Ministry records

The riots in the two villages of North Gujarat are not isolated cases. Records maintained by the Gujarat Home Ministry offer proof that Modi's claims in the podcast were not factually sound. The state has witnessed at least one communal riot every year post 2004 and multiple incidents every year between 2017 and 2022.

“Small-scale riots began to happen from 2004 as the displaced Muslim families began to settle in various villages and towns that were unaffected by the 2002 riots,” Mujaheed Nafees, coordinator of the Minority Coordination Commission, a rights organisation, told The Federal. “In most places, they faced a pushback, causing small-scale communal riots.”

Nafees said these riots would happen in far-off villages and small towns until 2017, when the riots began to shift back to urban areas.

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The riot years

Between 2017 and 2022, Gujarat witnessed 13 incidents of communal violence, of which 10 happened in Anand and Sabarkantha districts and one each in Vadodara, Mehsana and Gir Somanth.

Interestingly, the period coincided with the BJP's worst political performance — in the 2017 Assembly polls, where its vote share fell 20 per cent.

Khambhat, a traditional BJP stronghold that the party lost to the Congress in 2017 state polls, saw sporadic incidents of communal tension after the polls. In 2018, the government imposed the Disturbed Areas Act in the town that bars sale of property between two religious communities without prior permission from district authorities.

However, that did not stop riots in Khambat, a coastal town in Anand district.

Violence over petty issues

In February 2019, a petty feud between two children over flying kites in Akbarpura turned into a communal riot. The police fired seven rounds in the air and tear gas. A policeman was injured in the violence.

In the same month, another communal incident occurred over a social media post about the Pulwama attack in another part of Khambhat. In February 2020, after a theft in Bhavsarwad, a Hindu-dominated area, the Hindu Jagran Manch held a rally, urging Hindus to oust Muslims from the town.

Sanjay Patel, BJP leader from Khambhat and a former MLA, and Pinakin Brahmbhatt, the city unit head of the BJP, led the rally. The next day, riots broke out in Khambhat, leaving 13 Muslims injured. More than 30 shops, 10 houses and several vehicles were torched.

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Hindu mob provokes

It took the police and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) about two hours and several rounds of tear-gassing to quell the mob fury.

In another incident in 2022, after a Hindu man succumbed to injuries in violence during Ramnavami in Khambat, the police handed over the body to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which took out a procession through the Muslim-dominated areas of the city sparking communal riots.

“They stopped in front of a mosque in Shakkarpura village for over an hour while the police let them have their way,” Janisar Sheikh, a resident of Khambat, told The Federal.

Riots in Congress hubs

The same day, riots broke out at Himmatnagar, about 160 km from Khambhat. Several policemen and 113 people were injured in the violence. A mosque was burnt down.

The same week, another riot erupted in Veraval in Gir Somnath in Saurashtra region.

Curiously, all the places hit by communal incidents between 2017 and 2022 were traditional Congress stronghold barring Himmatnagar. The BJP won from Himmatnagar, a traditional stronghold, by less than 2,000 votes.

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A familiar pattern

Gir Somnath has been a Congress stronghold since 1962. In 2017, Congress’ Vimalbhai Chudasma won the seat by 20,450 votes. Five years later, the BJP gained back the lost seat and won multiple seats that were Congress bastions.

“There is a pattern in the communal riots in Gujarat. Not only have the riots taken place in areas unaffected by 2002 but also in areas where the Congress once enjoyed support. The riots became more frequent post 2017 as the BJP gave its worst poll performance,” Gauraang Desai, a political analyst based in Ahmedabad, told The Federal.

"But the state has not seen a riot post 2022 when the BJP recorded a historic win with 152 seats. This has an eerie similarity with political incidents leading up to 2002 riots," he observed.

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“In 2001, the BJP was rattled after losing gram panchayat elections and three Assembly bye-elections back to back. The party decided to replace then Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel with Narendra Modi. However, there was a strong sense of anti-incumbency and Modi was not yet a popular leader. It was during the time that Gujarat witnessed riots in February 2002. The Assembly elections that were due for April 2002 were held in December. The BJP recorded a comfortable win,” Desai added.