Let me begin by paying tribute to those killed in the 2002 Gujarat Riots. May their departed souls rest in peace. They were killed willy-nilly for reasons unknown to them. It has been 17 years since the pogroms of 2002 took place in Gujarat, wreaking havoc among people of both the Hindu and Muslim communities.
There are two contrasting faces from the Gujarat Riots. Ashok Mochi’s, representing the face of communal frenzy, and Qutubuddin Ansari’s, representing the helplessness of a victim, his horror struck eyes brimming with tears, eliciting a sense of fear. The contrasting images are still imprinted in the nation’s conscience. The images are often used by political leaders and intellectuals to show Narendra Modi’s Gujarat Model’s implementation on the grounds.
Qutubuddin Ansari, 44, is a tailor, who, in a picture taken during the Gujarat Riots, can be seen pleading for help to the RAF personnel with folded hands and teary eyes, at a time when the riots in Naroda Patiya had reached its peak. On the other hand, contrary to his image, the photograph of a man named Ashok Parmar took the nation’s breath away for the ferocity he represented in the image. Ashok Parmar, alias Ashok Mochi, 43, is a cobbler from Ahmedabad. He was photographed wearing a saffron bandana, and brandishing an iron rod, baying for blood. In 2017, Ashok joined the Dalit Azaadi Kooch after the merciless flogging of Dalits in Una.
Now the two contrasting faces have come together in Kerala on Wednesday to share the same stage to campaign for the CPI (M) candidate P. Jayarajan, who is contesting from Vatakara constituency in North Kerala.
Recollecting the gruesome days during the Gujarat Riots, Ansari goes on to say: “Those who are ruling the country have gone from Gujarat. We have all seen what they did in Gujarat. In the last five years, the mainstream culture of the country has undergone a change. People have been facing great difficulties. See the concern of Jayarajan for us, who live in far away Gujarat. So, how much concern would he have for people in front of him? So, please vote for him.”
Ashok Mochi, then representing the frenzied elements, and now an advocate of communal harmony and peace, appreciates Jayarajan’s effort to bring them to the same venue where they both can speak their mind unhesitatingly. He urges people to vote out hate politics and defeat those whose politics is based on the polarisation of people creating rifts among the common people of India. Addressing a rally in Kerala, he says, “The Congress and BJP are not good for our country. Both are against the poor. If there is a party that is concerned about the poor and the farmers, it is the CPI(M) only. We know what is happening in India since 2014, when BJP came to power. Innocent Muslim youths have been lynched. We have to doubt whether a Constitution exists.”
Needless to say, Mochi and Ansari are setting an example of communal harmony at a time when people are being polarised on the basis of trivial things such as religion, language, caste, creed, food habits, and more. The transformed soul in Mochi might even strike a chord with religious extremists in India to leave the path of violence creating a milieu of peaceful co-existence.