india

Updated: Mar 16, 2020 08:17 IST

Visitors to lane number four in north-east Delhi’s Kabir Nagar are now welcomed by a seven-foot high sturdy iron gate. Residents said they raised funds and installed the gate in the aftermath of the communal violence in February-end that killed 53 people and left over 500 injured in north-east Delhi.

Right across the road, a similar gate welcomes visitors to Lohiya Gully in Babarpur.

While Kabir Nagar’s lane number four is a Muslim pocket surrounded by Hindu-dominated areas, Babarpur’s Lohiya Gully is a Hindu pocket surrounded by several Muslim-dominated lanes.

Residents said these gates would keep mobs away if violence breaks out again in the area.

“What can we do? We have to take measures to protect ourselves from mobs,” said Asif Akhtar, a resident of Kabir Nagar, who supervised contractors engaged in setting up iron gates in the neighbourhood over the last two weeks.

Pawan Gupta, a resident of Babarpur, who monitored a similar exercise in his neighbourhood, said, “Relations between communities have definitely changed. There is no harm investing in such protective measures.”

As many as 12 such iron gates have come up in the interconnected lanes in neighbouring Kabir Nagar and Kardampuri localities. Eleven such gates have been installed in Babarpur and Maujpur.

Work on several more are in progress, Akhtar and Gupta said. All these have been set up by residents of the area.

Most such gates, they said, separate the Muslim pockets in Hindu-dominated localities and vice versa.

During the communal violence, several Hindu and Muslim pockets in riot-affected localities were separated by temporary blockades of damaged vehicles, broken furniture, wooden planks, tin sheets, debris of destroyed houses and shops in apprehension of attacks by mobs.

HT was witness to several such blockades during its coverage of the riots in localities such as Jafrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Kardampuri, Kabir Nagar, Gokalpuri, Ashok Nagar, Jyoti Nagar, Bhajanpura, Dayalpur, Brijpuri, Mustafabad, Karawal Nagar, Brahmpuri, Yamuna Vihar, Chand Bagh and Khajoori Khas.

Weeks later, several of those temporary blockades have now been replaced by permanent iron gates, creating clusters that stand divided, and keep people segregated, on the basis of faith..

According to Delhi cabinet minister Gopal Rai, demands for setting up gates in several riot-affected areas have compelled the government to plan a survey across localities.

He said the government is also planning a scheme under which the concerned municipal agency will be asked to execute the gate installation exercise, and funds will be provided by the Delhi government. However, no deadlines have been specified for the survey and the scheme.

FOCUS ON SAFETY

In Brijpuri, Hindu and Muslim residents joined hands to set up several iron gates. Nitin Arora and Qamar Hassan, both residents of adjacent lanes, worked together on measurements and budget.

“After seeing the riots, all families, whether Hindu or Muslim, want only one thing — safety,” Hassan said.

When asked if “safety” would be compromised if the gates are left open for usual thoroughfare, Arora said they would at least help keep mobs away the “next time”.

“Most of the people who died or were injured in the riots were those who stepped out of their homes to see what was happening and got caught in mob violence. The next time such a thing happens, we will at least be able to ensure a lockdown. On usual days, the gates can be kept open,” Arora said.

In a few localities, proposals for installing such gates have led to disputes. At least three such disputes have surfaced in the first and ninth lanes of Chand Bagh, and near a Durga temple. Here, residents belonging to one community have objected to the other’s plan citing possible inconveniences.

In areas such as Maujpur, most Muslim families who fled after the violence broke out are yet to return, but their Hindu neighbours are adamant about setting up gates.

“They (Muslims) haven’t returned since February 24. We do not know where they have gone. Anyway, we never spoke to them. Maybe they have found a better place to live. Soon, we will have gates at the front and back of every lane. We do not need their help for that,” said Usha Tomar, a resident of lane number 14 of Adarsh Mohalla in Maujpur.

SEEKING GOVERNMENT HELP

While people in some localities have set up new gates either on their own or collectively, and approached residents’ welfare associations (RWAs), others have sought help from the government.

The violence in north-east Delhi affected largely six assembly segments. Three of them are ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — Seelampur, Babarpur and Mustafabad — and three by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — Rohtash Nagar, Karawal Nagar and Ghonda.

In the last two weeks (between March 1 and March 14), according to the legislators representing these assembly segments, they have collectively received over 700 requests for setting up gates using government funds.

The BJP MLA from Karawal Nagar, Mohan Singh Bisht, said he has received 211 applications, the most so far. And Rohtash Nagar MLA, Jitender Mahajan of the BJP, said he has received 21 applications, the least so far. The other four MLAs have received between 100 and 200 requests, these legislators said.

Every MLA in Delhi is entitled to a local area development (LAD) fund of ₹10 crore per year, part of which can be invested in setting up gates in residential areas, but under special provisions which need to be cleared by the Delhi cabinet.

“People are scared. We have to pay attention to their request regarding gates. It will be prioritised. After these gates, we have also received large number of requests for installing CCTV cameras and police pickets,” Bisht said.

Environment and labour minister Gopal Rai said the demand for setting up gates is very high, and the government has to help the people. “The Delhi government is soon going to start a survey to identify the lanes and assess the total number of gates that need to be installed,” said Rai, who is also the Babarpur MLA.

The existence and involvement of several land agencies has also surfaced as a potential challenge. Rai said the urban development department pointed out that most of the lanes where residents are demanding gates be installed under the jurisdiction of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC). “ We are planning a scheme under which the EDMC will execute the project and the funds be given by the Delhi government,” he said.

Most MLAs point out that they will be in a better position to help after they receive the LAD funds after the Budget session of the Delhi Assembly, likely to be held after March 25.

Meanwhile, in an all-party meeting with the Delhi government last week, Delhi’s leader of opposition, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, urged the government to allow unused LAD funds in some areas to be invested on setting up gates. These funds will technically lapse on March 31, he said.

THREAT PERCEPTION

According to Sanjay Srivastava, professor of sociology with the Institute of Economic Growth in University of Delhi, demands for such gates is an “ongoing tragedy” in urban life.

“Gating has been an ongoing process in Delhi. In recent times, one of the most significant instances was just before the Asian Games in 1982 when a lot of labourers came into the city and were perceived as threat. However, I don’t think it is necessarily linked to ‘major’ events. We have a very generalised gating sensibility. This has to do with viewing gating as a solution to urban problems, rather than a manifestation of a deep-rooted problem,” said Srivastava, also a British Academy Global Professor at University College London.

“Further, while, closing off public streets may not be legal, it is something that is strongly encouraged. This, through a tragic logic of its own, now percolates to the making of religious enclaves. Of course, we have to understand that many of our existing enclaves are religious enclaves, given that there exist invisible barriers to people from another religion finding a home within them. However, the key difference is that this idea might be spreading from middle-class contexts to poorer localities. The more open nature of poorer localities now replicates that of the middle-class ones.

“So, as it is, our cities are very divided. However, it has tended to be confined to people in higher socio-economic groups — with the active encouragement of the state. One can only fear for our cities where we have very few ways of dealing with strangers in a civil manner — and our civil interactions are limited to those in our social circle. This latest trend makes into strangers those who were neighbours. There might be a political pay-off, but in terms of urban life, an ongoing tragedy,” he said.