Leave! This Land Isn't Your Home

An infants rape allegedly by a migrant and local rage over joblessness trigger an exodus from Gujarat.

- Darshan Desai in Ahmedabad

REMINISCENT of the 2008 att­acks on migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in Mahar­ashtra, rampaging mobs in north and central Gujarat last week targeted labourers from north Indian states, forcing an exodus of sorts. Ostensibly triggered by out­ rage over the rape of a 14­month­old girl in Sabarkantha district, allegedly by a migrant worker from Bihar, the attacks could be an outcome of pent­up anger against migrants being allegedly favoured over locals for jobs.

The rape was reported on September 28 and the attacks began nearly a week later. The exodus of migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and UP, fanned by bitter social media outpourings and word-of-mouth stories, began around the time the Election Commission announced election dates in the states bordering Gujarat. Small wonder then that a political slugfest has begun with the ruling BJP accusing the Congress, especially MLA Alpesh Thakore and his Gujarat Kshatriya Thakore Sena (GKTS), of provoking the violence. The Congress, in turn, says the BJP engineered it for political gain.

The political narrative in the episode revolves around Thakore, whose GKTS has a strong presence in north Gujarat, and who has been recently named the All-India Congress Committee secretary in-charge of Bihar. Thakore has always championed the cause of local Gujaratis not given jobs in small and big industrial units. He had led massive rallies and courted arrests in the run-up to the Gujarat elections last year.