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Thursday, Apr 15, 2004

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National - Elections 2004

In Borivali, a simmering anger against the police

The use of POTA has alienated Muslims in villages across Maharashtra; this could rebound on the Congress-NCP alliance, says Kalpana Sharma

A four-letter word will decide how the 7,000 inhabitants of Borivali village, near Thane, vote on April 26. That word is POTA (the Prevention of Terrorism Act), and the manner in which it has been used in Maharashtra over the last two years.

Nasir Mulla, a timber merchant and the village elder, is an angry man. You would not guess it from his demeanour as he narrates, in an even tone, the events that have galvanised the village. But when he completes his story, you realise that the somnolence shrouding the village is deceptive; it hides the simmering anger with the police and the State Government.

Borivali and Padgha are twin villages located 15 km from Bhiwandi, just off the busy Mumbai-Nasik highway. While the former is almost completely Muslim, the latter is mostly Hindu, predominantly Dalits. According to the residents, the two communities live separately yet together, without interfering too much in each other's customs. They also claim that their villages were islands of peace when communal violence raged all around them in 1970, 1984 and 1992-93.

The reason Borivali has attracted the attentions of POTA lie behind a padlocked door and a dusty board announcing the office of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), an organisation banned under POTA. SIMI is suspected to be responsible for the bomb blasts that occurred in Mumbai from late 2002 to August 2003. Also, the fact that Saquib Nachen, a former SIMI activist is from Borivali, has ensured that the village is suspect in the eyes of the police. Nachen, who served a 10-year sentence under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) was released from Sabarmati jail in April 2001. Since then, he has been living in Borivali, functioning as a kazi.

In March last year, after a blast in the Mumbai suburb of Mulund, the police came to the village in strength to arrest Nachen. The villagers stopped them and the police party had to return empty-handed. But they returned and picked up several people, including Mulla's son Atif, for obstructing justice. On April 10, Nachen surrendered before the Bombay High Court and was promptly booked under POTA for alleged involvement in the Mulund blast. Mulla's son, Atif, has also been charged with involvement in the bomb blasts although the father swears that his 27-year-old son, who has an MBA and was getting ready to marry a 19-year-old from the village, has nothing to do with SIMI or with the blasts. "I want my son back", says Mulla. In March this year, the special court looking into the bomb blast in Ghatkopar discharged Nachen, Mulla's son, and seven others for lack of evidence. Mulla mentions this to underline the flimsy pretext under which the police arrested people from Borivali. But none of them have been released as they still face charges for the other blasts.

So is Borivali a hotbed of terrorist activity as suggested by the police? The village is prosperous by Indian standards. There is a high level of literacy. Yet, even though the SIMI office looks deserted at the moment, it is evident that the organisation has a strong following. On their own admission, people say that they follow Islam strictly, say their prayers five times a day, that women cover themselves even when they move about in the village and that no one has cable TV. Why? "We have decided that we don't want all this nudity", says Mulla. But his wife quietly adds that SIMI activists forcibly remove the cable connection if anyone dares disobey this rule.

The significance of the Borivali/Padgha experience over the last year has a wider political significance for Maharashtra. The use of POTA has alienated Muslims not just in this village but also in Solapur, Malegaon, Osmanabad and other areas. Mulla says that he has been in touch with several organisations, and that the villagers are weighing their options in the coming Lok Sabha elections. If they decide that the Congress-NCP alliance is the greater evil, their vote could help the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in several closely contested seats.

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