Lok Sabha polls 2024: Caught between apathy and negation, why Gujarat’s Muslims have nowhere to go

Nadeembhai Saiyyed is a well-regarded community elder in Citizen Nagar, a Muslim ghetto on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, which started out as a temporary refugee colony for people displaced by the 2002 riots but ended up being a permanent abode for about 1,300 families.

The 58-year-old is often approached by politicians ahead of elections to get them the support of Citizen Nagar’s residents.

“We have been supporters of the Congress always. But many residents have stopped voting for the party since the past few years now. The Congress has failed to bring any relief to Citizen Nagar despite being in a position to do so. About 1,300 families, all victims of the riots, live under the 82-foot-high garbage mound in Pirana without basic civic amenities,” says Nadeem Saiyyed.

Citizen Nagar, a Muslim ghetto on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, started out as a temporary refugee colony for people displaced by the 2002 riots but ended up being a permanent abode for about 1,300 families.

Saiyyed used to work as a daily wage labourer in chemical factories in Vatva industrial area, not far from Citizen Nagar. But it has been a year since he stopped working. Amongst his two sons, one is a daily-wager and takes up odd jobs at factories or construction sites. His elder son started selling vegetables in the locality after he managed to buy a cart with his savings.

“I remain sick these days. I was diagnosed with tuberculosis a year back,” tells Saiyyed who is one of the many older residents of the ghetto to have been diagnosed with lung disorders.

“The smoke from chemical factories and the garbage dump makes all of us sick. But where do we go? We have no option but to continue to live here. Since we came here in 2004, we have been struggling for basic things like road, water and a medical facility,” says Abrar, Saiyyed’s elder son.

“The corporator of this ward (Behrampur) is from the Congress but he has done nothing for us. There is a chemical factory whose waste runs behind our house. We have met the corporator numerous times asking him to do something about it, but in vain. Yet, he keeps winning because the Muslims vote for him,” says 61-year-old Qureshi bhai, another resident of Citizen Nagar. Qureshi has been ailing from TB and asthma for three years now.

“It will perhaps be better to vote for the BJP this time. Being the ruling party, it can get at least get us some benefits,” he adds.

About 10 kilometres from Citizen Nagar is one of the largest Muslims ghettoes in Gujarat — Juhapura. Majority of the 2002 riot victims settled here have stood mostly with the Congress so far.

Although over the years, a couple of multi-storey residential buildings and gated societies have come up, the urban ghetto mostly remains economically backward. The residents are by and large autorickshaw drivers, lorry drivers or small shop owners.

“Every year, the area gets waterlogged for at least 8 to10 days during monsoons. Water enters our houses and children find it difficult to attend school,” says 34-year-old Amina, a resident of Juhapura.

Amina’s husband Imran Sheikh works as a lorry driver for a local transport company and earns about Rs 8,500 a month provided he has a job through the 30 days.

“There are days where he isn’t hired and goes unpaid. Our family of six depends on his income. He is the sole earner for his family,” shares Amina.

Scarcity of drinking water is also an issue for the urban ghetto. Noticeably, the water supply pipeline of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) was facilitated only after a PIL was filed in the matter in 2016. The AMC pipeline earlier ended in the adjoining Hindu-dominated ward, Jodhpur.

Poor drainage is another problem not just in Juhapura but other neighbouring Muslim settlements like Rakhiyal, Bapunagar and Vatva.

“I wrote several letters to the authorities regarding the poor drainage and water pipelines but didn’t receive any response. Even I could not get safe drinking water,” shares Iqbal Shaikh, a former corporator from Rakhiyal.

“Juhapura is also deprived of the Union scheme Har Ghar Nal Yojana 2022, aimed at supplying drinking water to every household in the country. Activists have even approached the Gujarat High Court demanding the scheme be initiated in the area, but in vain,” adds Iqbal.

“If you go to any Hindu dominated area in Ahmedabad west, you will notice a planned residential area with enough greenery, a park, immaculate roads, separate parking space etc, but Juhapura is nothing like that. Although an extended part of Ahmedabad west, it is a congested urban slum with open garbage dumps, narrow lanes where people still live without basic amenities like water or proper sanitation,” says Kalim Siddique, a resident of Juhapura and Muslim rights activist.

“The Muslims of Gujarat have been relegated to these urban ghettos and can’t live in any other part of the city. They won’t get accommodation. Nobody would sell or rent them houses. This ghettoisation has affected the minds of young Muslim voters. The generation raised in these ghettoes after 2002 has strong religious and political views. They react strongly to right wing extremism of the ruling party. Cow vigilantism, incidents of lynching, provocative statements by leaders have serious impact on the Muslim youth. This is the reason, when AIMIM fielded their candidates in 2022 state poll, it got the vote of the Muslim youths,” said Siddique, who was a former member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), but is now a social worker.

Limited options and lack of representation

Disgruntled by the Congress, many Muslims, especially the youth voted for the AAP and the AIMIM, which seemed like options for the Muslims in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls.

Asaduddin Owaisi in Ahmedabad.

However, many believe that almost all political parties are gradually growing apathetic towards the community.

Asrarbhai Patel, a 51-year-old man from Bharuch, a district in south Gujarat with 22 per cent Muslims, the highest concentration of the community in the area, used to be Congress supporter once.

“They come asking for votes, but they have definitely begun to field fewer Muslim candidates. What does that imply?” asks Patel whose family lives on the income generated from a small patch of agrarian land.

“I used to be a supporter of Ahmed Patel. I have always attended meetings and events held by Congress in Bharuch. But the Congress has been nonchalant about BJP’s statements and actions towards the Muslims. Why does the BJP need to bring up riots of 2002 in their rallies and speeches? Did Congress ask why the 11 men were freed from jail,” he asks referring to the release of the convicts in Bilkis Bano case.

The convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 for raping Bilkis Bano and later released by Gujarat High Court. The rapists and murderers were sent to jail months later only after Supreme court upheld the life sentence of the lower court.

Noticeably, Muslims form about 9.5 per cent of the electoral population of the state. However, there has not been any Muslim Lok Sabha candidate from Gujarat in 40 years. The last Muslim Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat was Ahmed Patel who had won from Bharuch in 1984. Since then, Gujarat did not have any Muslim MP from any party. In fact, 1977 was the best year for Gujarat Muslims in terms of electoral representation when the Congress nominated Ehsan Jafri and Ahmed Patel as Lok Sabha candidates.

This year with AIMIM debuting in the Lok Sabha polls from two seats in Gujarat — Bharuch and Gandhinagar, Gujarat has got two Muslim Lok Sabha candidates since 1984.

“The BJP has never given tickets to Muslims in parliamentary or assembly polls in Gujarat. Before 1990, there had been Congress Lok Sabha candidates from seats like Banaskantha and Bharuch, where Hindus are in a majority but have considerable Muslim population. In 1962, in the first Lok Sabha polls after Gujarat was formed out of Bombay state, Johra Chavda, a Muslim Congress candidate had won from Banaskantha which was the first and last instance of a Muslim winning from the seat where they form about 12 per cent of the voters,” says Ahmedabad-based political analyst Hari Desai.

“After the 1990 rath yatra, which started from Somnath in Gujarat, the state has been so polarised that it is no longer possible for a Muslim candidate to win. Besides, ever since BJP begun to brand the Congress as a Muslim party, the Congress has also been caught in the trap and has followed soft Hindutva,” added Desai.

Noticeably, in Gujarat, four parliamentary seats — Banaskantha, Kutch, Ahmedabad West and Bharuch have sizable number of Muslims.

Shifting loyalty with the ruling party

About six months before the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the BJP’s Minority Cell held a series of conventions trying to convince Muslims to vote for the party. At one of these events held in Dahegam in Gandhinagar district in 2019, nearly 2,000 Muslim Congress party workers joined the BJP.

Mehmoodaben Sheikh, then the vice-president of the Congress’s Minority Cell, was one of them. After being associated with the Congress for 21 years, Sheikh switched to BJP as she had lost hope in the party.

Mehmoodaben Sheikh joined the BJP after getting frustrated with the Congress.

Five years later, though still a member of BJP minority cell, she is not politically active anymore.

“The BJP’s Minority Cell did not organise any other event in five years barring an internal party meeting in January 2021, in Gandhinagar. I am not politically active much either,” tells Mehmooda, who was once known for her organisational skills and groundwork.

“There is no going back to the Congress. The Congress treats its women members as second-class workers, particularly at the taluka level. Funds would not be released for all-women programmes even though they were organised at the behest of senior leaders of party. There were times when we organised programmes where women workers came from far-off villages and the party was reluctant to arrange for their travel and food. At least in BJP, workers are not treated the same way,” she adds.

“For Muslims reeling from the 2002 carnage, the Congress party and religious leaders had become a support system. But 21 years later, Muslims are in no better shape socio-economically. The Congress has just used Muslims all these years,” said Rafiq Ahmed Bhagat, former sarpanch from Bharuch district, who also had switched to BJP in 2019.

Rafiq too has not been in active politics since 2019. He owns a fair price shop that he manages full time.

Noticeably, after 2002, the BJP in Gujarat had found its way into the minority Shia Muslims, who are generally affluent.

However, the party also began to woo the majority Sunni sect since 2009.

“Though affected alike by the riots, Shia and Sunni Muslims have had different stances towards the BJP. The Sunnis, who are the majority Muslim sect in Gujarat, have traditionally been anti-BJP. The Shias – Dawoodi Vohras and Khojas, who are primarily a trader community, have been inclined towards whichever party has been in power,” said Mujaheed Nafees, president of the Minority Coordination Committee, a Gujarat-based Muslim rights organisation.

“It was in 2009 that the BJP began the process of reconciliation with Sunni Muslims of Gujarat through its Sadbhavna Mission. Many Sunni Muslim clerics came out in support of the BJP including Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Mahmood Madani. The party nominated 297 Muslim candidates for various local body elections and 148 of them won between 2009 and 2013. Interestingly, most of the nominations were given to Sunni Muslims.” says Danish Qureshi, a member of AIMIM in Gujarat.

“Gujarat’s Muslim voters face a tough choice this election — between an apathetic Congress and an increasingly jingoist BJP. This is why AIMIM decided to contest in Gujarat. May be in AIMIM, Muslims of Gujarat will find an alternative,” adds Qureshi.