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The two worlds of Gujarat

On Thursday Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee came face to face with the real Gujarat or call it the all-new Gujarat -- a state divided into two worlds by hatred and mistrust.

As soon as his flight touched down at Kankaria, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh stronghold, he was greeted by a small crowd raising pro-Narendra Modi slogans. The chief minister, if he felt happy by all the cheering, didn't let it show.

Just a couple of hours later at the Shah Aalam relief camp, home for over a month now to some 10,000 people, mostly Muslims made homeless in the riots, Vajpayee encountered a crowd that booed Modi and raised slogans demanding his resignation.

This is Gujarat post-Godhra, post-over 800 deaths and post-a month of mindless looting and arson.

That it was not easy for Vajpayee, a politician with proclaimed sensitivities of a poet, to relate to the new Gujarat was evident as soon as he began addressing the riot victims at the Shah Aalam camp. He was angry and he let it show.

He repeatedly referred to the brutality of the riots and to the fact that even women and children were not spared. "Main to soch bhi nahin sakta hun ki aadmi ko jinda kaise jalaya ja sakta hai" ( I can't even imagine how can one burn people alive?)," he said.

He spoke of how the violence in Gujarat had caused irreparable damage to the country's image abroad. "With what face, I do not know, I will go abroad after what all has happened here," he said. Modi, who was standing all along by the prime minister's side, did not flinch.

No soon had the speech ended, the crowd broke the discipline imposed upon it by baton-wielding volunteers and policemen and burst into anti-Modi slogans once again.

"Excellent!" said Mohsin Kadri, an organiser at the camp. "Chief Minister Modi has now found the time to come to Muslims and that too under the prime minister's protection...what a shame!"

The prime minister's team, which comprised several senior Union ministers, turned red with embarrassment when Nannu Miyan, a riot victim, broke down before the prime minister. Pointing a finger at Modi, he told Vajpayee: "This man is not trustworthy."

Twelve members of Nannu Miyan's family were burnt alive in Naroda Patiya area of Ahmedabad by a mob.

Unfazed by the hostile reception, Modi invited Muslim leaders to his office and offered them land in Narol area for rehabilitation.

Kadri looked pleased with the proposal. "He has promised us the land near Narol where we will be able to build 2000 homes. Modi also said he will provide us money and relief material without any delay. We are more than satisfied with Modi's promise," he said.

But then it was time to cross over into the other world. At the Kankariya relief camp, where Hindu riot victims have been given shelter, Vajpayee was one again greeted with 'Narendra Modi-zindabad' slogans.

At the Shah Aalam camp Vajpayee had spoken of reconciliation and rebuilding -- he sure has his job cut out for him.

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