Scarred, Mumbai offers Gujarat legal and material help

No city knows riots — and the life after — better than Mumbai. Two months after Gujarat started burning, a handful of organisation...

No city knows riots — and the life after — better than Mumbai. Two months after Gujarat started burning, a handful of organisations and individuals are shaping a movement to help riot victims.

Pushing the movement are lawyers, artists, writers, students and social workers. Corporate lawyer Chander Uday Singh said: ‘‘We were concerned about Gujarat. So we came together and decided to help with relief.’’

They are now working on mobilising public opinion and relief in the form of clothes, medicines, utensils and money. Individuals and groups continue to visit the victims, offer help and compile reports.

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n Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal has collected Rs 11,31,701. Some major donors are Mani Bhavan, lawyer Iqbal Chagla, Western Railways’ Employee Union, and Anjuman Islam; J.B. Petit High School students contributed Rs 1 lakh

n Former mayor Shanti Patel, former Sheriff S.K. Khorakiwala and others met at Indian Merchants’ Chamber on April 29 and formed Citizens for Harmony to mobilise public opinion

n Citizens for Justice and Peace is collecting relief material

n The Open Circle, an initiative of city artists, and Forum for Oppressed Women are collecting funds, medicines, utensils and clothes. Kekoo Gandhy, owner, Chemould Art gallery, said a programme on Kabir, street plays, play readings and art exhibitions are in the pipeline. ‘‘Artists are going to put up their paintings at the Taj. These would be sold or auctioned at half their prices. Half the sale proceeds would go towards Gujarat relief,’’ Gandhy said

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n Dr A.R. Undre, a surgeon at Bhatia Hospital, Tardeo, and Justice H. Suresh and others have formed Secular Activist’s Watch to ‘‘mobilise opinion against those who are destroying the fabric of India’’

n Sudhir Paranjpe, convenor, Indian School of Social Sciences, is helping collect medicines and funds

n The city’s lawyers on April 30 formed The Citizen’s Initiative. Comprising Chander Uday Singh, Anand Grover, Mihir Desai and Shiraz Rustomji, the group is carrying on a signature campaign and collecting funds

Desai is the lawyer for Mallika Sarabhai and others who have filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding a CBI inquiry into the riots. ‘‘Lawyers in Gujarat are intimidated at the moment. So some of us are appearing in cases filed in Gujarat High Court and Supreme Court. In the petition filed in the SC, we are calling it a genocide and asking for a CBI probe,’’ Desai said. Shiraz Rustomji and Aspi Chinoy are the other lawyers appearing in Gujarat High Court.