’Mazaar’ that United Hindus, Muslims during Bihar riots now stands divided on electoral

Mangalore Today News Network

Nawada, Apr 09, 2019 : It’s been a year since the Hindus risked their lives for a Muslim seer’s mazaar set afire by rioters in Bihar’s Nawada. However, as Lok Sabha elections approach, the same shrine stands electorally divided, News18 reported.

News18 had last year reported how, in the middle of communal violence, Hindus and Muslims had stepped out of their houses to save their shared cultural heritage — the shrine of Baba Sufidullah Shah.

Ever since the incident, the men who had got together to douse the fire have been spending occasional evenings at the very place over cups of tea. A year after the riots and two days ahead of Lok Sabha polling in the district, communal harmony remains a prerogative but their choices of political parties and the supporting arguments portray a religious bias.

Mohammad Dawood Khan, 34, a renowned businessman in the area, does not agree with the electoral preference of the rest of the men, all of them Hindus. He thinks the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led grand alliance will do a better job in the state and the Congress should lead the nation.

He bases his argument on the shared experiences of all the men in the group during the Bihar riots.

"You’ve seen how much the town had to go through last year. Before this I had never seen Hindus and Muslims in Nawada fighting to this extent. Also, the BJP is known for its divisive politics. It will eventually subdue Muslims. Nitish Kumar is also under BJP’s pressure and is not able to do much," says Dawood as the men wait for their tea to arrive.

In March last year, communal violence had for a fortnight spread like wildfire in Bihar. The eye of the communal storm in Nawada — a vandalised statue of Lord Hanuman — had laid very close to Dawood’s house, naturally bringing him to the very edge of his nerves.

Recalling the day, he explains how he had closed all doors and windows and was in complete panic only because a group of men decided to portray their religious fanaticism. "Communal violence has increased since the NDA has come to power. Muslims have been lynched in many places in the country. If this party forms the government again, it will become a very difficult place for us," says Dawood.

Standing beside him, Manmohan Krishna, a local journalist, had witnessed the events unfold from ground zero. Grey-haired and slightly built, Krishna does not agree with Dawood’s analogy.

"The riot was started after the Hanuman statue was vandalised. Naturally, it cannot be a Hindu man. It has to be some Muslim group who did it. Whoever did it, it was wrong. But the government cannot be blamed for it. The NDA government has worked for the development of the nation," he says.

He was at the site where the Hanuman statue was destroyed. "People had completely lost control of themselves. Heavy stone pelting was going on, traffic on the highway had been halted, people were being thrashed and police were lathi-charging to disperse the mobs," he remembers.

Meanwhile, tea is ready. The men take a cup each.

Shravan Kumar Barnwal, a Hindu garment shop owner, takes a sip and tries to make his friend, Dawood, understand. "You cannot ignore the development made by this government. Also, the Muslim exploitation that you are talking about is not true. And if the government favours the Hindus, what is the problem in that?" he retorts.

On the day of the riot, Barnwal had got a call from his friend who was distressed on hearing the news about the mazaar being set on fire. After this he, along with Dawood, had headed for the place.

The mazaar, whose desecration had upset both Muslims and Hindus of Nawada, is surrounded by paddy fields on all four sides. One has to walk for a kilometre through these fields to reach the place. Nobody in the town seems to know for sure how old it is. “It is older than me,” 86 year-old Mohamad Alam Khan, the shrine’s caretaker, says with a smile. But what unites the residents of Nawada is a belief in the sanctity of the mazaar. A protective love for it has passed down several generations. The attack on the shrine was in many ways an attack on the shared history of Nawada’s people.

A Hindu farmer, who lives close to the mazaar and had seen the entire incident from ground zero, believes that chief minister Nitish Kumar had handled the matter very well. "Nitish ji had arrested many people during the riots. Most of them were Hindus. How can he be biased? There is no religion in his governance," he says.

Nawada is heading for polls on 11 April, two days from now.

BJP’s sitting MP Giriraj Singh, who won the seat in 2014 by defeating RJD’s Raj Ballabh Prasad by a margin of nearly 1.4 lakh votes, was sent to Begusarai as Nawada went to Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) as part of the seat-sharing formula of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

This time, Chandan Kumar will contest from Nawada as the LJP candidate and RJD’s Vibha Devi will contest as mahagathbandhan candidate. She is the wife of jailed former MLA Raj Vallabh Yadav, who was disqualified recently following conviction in a rape case.

The men do not share the same political opinions today, but back then, within days of the incident, the residents had put the mazaar back to its original glory. The patrons of the shrine had taken pictures of the place and spread it across social media platforms to spread the message of peace.

Ironically, communal riots had united while national elections are dividing Nawada.