BJP steps in to ‘pressurise’ Muslim families to withdraw from Sayajipura

Sources said that those part of the meeting were BJP City President Bharat Dangar, Mayor Bharat Shah, MP Ranjan Bhatt, MLAs Yogesh Patel, Manisha Vakil and Rajendra Trivedi, Corporators Shabdasharan Brahmabhatt and Ashok Pardesi as well as Gujarat Minister of State Shankar Chaudhary.

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Kalyannagar residents said the leaders asked them to withdraw from Sayajipura due to the “communal discord” that the allotments had caused, with stiff opposition from the locals in the area. Representatives of the families, however, insisted that the BJP leaders promise them relocation in the Kalyannagar area in exchange.

Arif Pathan, who led the group of Kalyannagar residents in their meetings with authorities, said, “We were called by the BJP for a meeting to resolve this issue of the protest and our relocation. They asked us to find a way out from this. We told them that we were poor people. It is they who should be resolving this issue and giving us our homes. To that, Bharat Dangar said, we should give an application to the VMC Commissioner H S Patel, stating that we are willing to withdraw from the Sayajinagar scheme due to the objection from the locals and they will arrange an alternate accommodation for us in a Muslim area. We asked them to give us an undertaking in writing that they will not leave us in a lurch. But they insisted that we must withdraw first through an application.”

A party leader present at the meeting said the rationale behind calling the meeting was a last-ditch attempt to convince the families to give up their claim on Sayajipura and areas from where the VMC is facing opposition. The leader said, “The party is trying to resolve the problem as the residents of Sayajipura are opposed to the decision to shift Muslim families, while the Kalyannagar families insist on Kalali or Sayajipura. Both locations are seeming difficult to offer as the VMC is facing opposition in both areas. We requested them to understand the situation and agree to moving to some other areas where they can be accommodated.”

Representatives of the families are wary that submitting an application to the VMC to relinquish claim on the Sayajipura allotments could mean giving the civic body the authority to offer them far flung areas that the families have been refusing.

Shaukat Indori, an activist who is supporting the residents’ case, said, “The residents were called to the Circuit house by BJP leaders and tacitly pressurised to withdraw. We have a strong feeling that there is a lobby at work behind this and not the actual residents of Sayajipura. The political lobbies are trying to portray a picture of discord so that Muslims are kept out of the Sayajipura. There is no reason why the families would want to withdraw from Sayajipura as it has been their demand to relocate them there if not Kalali and Kalyannagar itself.”

Later in the evening, the families met VMC officials in a closed-door meeting – including Municipal Commissioner HS Patel, seeking allotment letters for the draw conducted last week. The residents, backed by eminent Muslim activists of the city, have formed a Peace Committee and urged that the civic body undertake a “Sadbhavna programme” with religious leaders belonging to both faiths in Sayajipura to allay the anxieties of local families towards the move of the Muslim families.

Dangar denied having summoned the Kalyannagar families to the Circuit house meeting. Instead, he said that the families had voluntarily approached the party leaders to “pull out” of Sayajipura, soured by the stiff opposition from locals to their relocation there. Dangar said, “The residents came to us to tell us they want to withdraw. We supported their request and asked them to submit an application to the VMC Commissioner and give us four locations in Muslim neighbourhoods as alternative relocation. They came up with Tandalja, Gorwa and a few other names. It will not be possible to relocate them to Kalyannagar as the Vishwamitri Riverfront project is coming up there. We have assured them that the Mayor will take up the issue for them.”