MUZAFFARNAGAR: They have been angry, agonized and dispossessed. And they didnt even have voter cards using which they could articulate their rage. But all that might change for many of those rendered homeless by the Muzaffarnagar riots last year. NGOs working overtime and a local administration that has been hard at it have ensured that a chunk of the refugees who had lost all their documents, including voter cards, as they fled the violence, will be equipped enough by the end of this month to cast their votes and vent their frustrations at the powers that be — or were. Twenty-five persons received their voter cards on Monday, and another 3,200 have been guaranteed they will by the end of the month, well in time for the polls that begin in April. Forms 6 and 8(A) needed for the cards have been made available, said Inder Mani Tripathi, ADM, Muzaffarnagar. This brings a sliver of hope to the displaced who had lost all hope of being able to exercise their right this election. However, for a bulk of the displaced — estimates put the total at around 50,000, a substantial chunk of them without voter cards — it would still be a race against time to get the vital document before the region goes to polls on April 10. It will be very sad if the people who suffered in the riots do not get to exercise their right to vote, said Faraz Badr Rizvi from Jagriti Seva Sansthan, an NGO that is helping in the mission. A large percentage of the refugees, a majority of them Muslims, is perceived to be disenchanted with the Samajwadi Party government for its role during the riots. The way they vote this time, coupled with the empathy of community members outside the belt and across Uttar Pradesh, could well be a game-changer for political parties in the fray for the Lok Sabha elections. Giving an indication of the prevailing mood in and around Muzaffarnagar among Muslims, Mohammad Yameen, who has been living in a relief camp for months now, said, If the SP government really wanted to help us, we would not have been surviving like this. Talking about the effort to get the riot victims voter cards, Ajmal-ur-Rehman of Muslim Voice of India, an NGO, said that a big challenge was to mentally convince many of them about the importance of voting. We told them that having a voter card will prevent them from being mistaken as Bangladeshi migrants, if nothing else. They have suffered a lot due to the inaction of the ruling party. They need to give it back by voting in a new regime that will look into their demands. Increasingly, a number of them have begun to realize the power of the ballot. Earlier, I didnt bother about whom to vote. But now, after going through this trauma, I will vote for whoever helps us restore the little dignity that we had in the world, said Masroofa, one of the victims of the riots. Tripathi, though, says that it will be a massive challenge to cover all the families before the polls. The task is huge since families are scattered at different places, he said. For the displaced — strewn, with no employment or education for their children — being able to vote is perhaps the only desperate shot at improving their grim existence. Last week, a school master had visited our camp with a bundle of forms. All the 45 families staying here filled them up, said Yameen. I have told him that under no circumstances should our names be missing in the voters list.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 10:51:09 +0000
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