At the Godhra railway station today, it was just another day. Had it not been for the date, even the additional SRP personnel would not have been there.Two years after the torching of coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express triggered riots across Gujarat, the fear factor has gone missing from Godhra. For people in this town, February 27 was business as usual, the notorious past behind them. Ticket checking staff, busy monitoring passengers alighting from trains, recalled how different it was from last year: ‘‘You could feel the tension then, some of us were even apprehensive of violence. Today, it is very different. Not every passenger arriving here seems to be aware that it is the second anniversary of the Godhra carnage.’’For Mukhtar Muhammad, who boarded the Jammu Tawi train to Delhi on Friday, said there was no reason to worry: ‘‘I can tell you there’s no fear as I wait for the train. Let’s hope it all stays this way.’’Ditto for passengers who got off the local train. Godhra resident Jaisukh Mehta, who arrived from Vadodara in the afternoon, maintained ‘‘I remembered today was the second anniversary of the Godhra carnage. But I didn’t skip the journey. Things are very different now, people have forgotten the past. Everything’s normal.’’Near Polan Bazaar, one of the busiest grain markets in the State, Laljeebhai was taking stock of two truckloads of grain: ‘‘Frankly, when people like you (reporters) put questions to us we are reminded of the day. It was a sad incident. But we need to move forward. This town has gained notoriety because of that one incident. It’s time to highlight the good character of the town.’’He wasn’t wrong. Even senior VHP leaders and sitting BJP MLA Haresh Bhatt stayed away from a ceremony that had been organised by the VHP to mark the torching of the Sabarmati Express. It was left to local VHP leaders, including district government pleader Piyush Gandhi, to conduct the programme. Gandhi, incidentally, is handling 124 communal riots cases in the Panchmahals.Later, at the initiative of local VHP secretary Shambu Prasad Shukla, activists decide to move to the charred S-6 coach to offer floral tributes. Although permission had not been obtained, the police did not object to this as only a handful of activists, including Gandhi, boarded the coach to offer their tributes.As activists busied themselves in photo shoots on board the charred coach, a tea vendor on Platform No 1 was anxiously waiting for the next train to arrive. ‘‘Since the Godhra carnage, our business has seen a dramatic downslide. Things are slowly limping back to normal. Why rake up the issue again?’’ he asked. In this town, time is healing the wounds.
