AHMEDABAD/ VADODARA: Angry at the rape of a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district of north

on September 28, hate crimes targeting Hindi-speaking people have now spread to central parts of the state. Eight contractual workers were allegedly attacked at the ‘Bal Amul’ plant near Anand late on Sunday night.

With the situation worsening, chief ministers of

and

called up their Gujarat counterpart Vijay Rupani on Monday to express concern.

Fifty-six cases of attacks on migrants, mainly from UP and Bihar, have so far been registered across Gujarat and 431 arrested for it. The incidents have mainly occurred in Himmatnagar, where the rape was committed, Mehsana, Gandhinagar, and Ahmedabad. Now Vadodara, Anand and Panchmahals, which have a sizeable population of the Thakor community, have been singed too. The little girl who was violated is a Thakor by caste.

In Ahmedabad, over 100 migrants fled for their lives after a godown near Kabir temple in Vastral was set afire late on Sunday night. Eight persons have been nabbed for posting hate messages against “outsiders”. Mahipatsinh Rajawat, a tour operator who runs buses between Gujarat, UP and MP, said that “at least 25,000 migrants have left Ahmedabad alone in the past two days”.

The exodus of migrant workers has industrial units on tenterhooks as they are heavily dependent on labourers from outside Gujarat. This has resulted in production losses of 20% ahead of the festive season. “Over 12,000 labourers from states such as Bihar and UP, employed in North Gujarat, have left for their home states,” said Ajit Shah, president, Sanand Industries Association (SIA). Just Sanand has seen 4,000 migrant workers leave the state in the past few days.

However, large industrial hubs with substantial migrant populations in Surat, Kutch, Morbi,

and Rajkot have thus far been unaffected. Some have started getting additional security provided by the government.

Meanwhile, in Gandhinagar on Monday, cops arrested Congress leader Mahot Thakor, a member of Thakor Sena, an outfit floated by Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor. He along with four others were nabbed after a video of Mahot threatening migrants to leave Uvarsad village “in next 24 hours” went viral.

The protest against migrants was started by Alpesh, who is AICC in-charge secretary of Bihar. While the arrest of the Thakor Sena man left Congress red-faced, Alpesh chose to maintain a low profile, citing “personal reasons” to skip comment. A week ago, Alpesh had publicly fanned hatred, saying “crime has increased due to migrants… Because of them, my Gujaratis are not getting employment. Is Gujarat for such people?”

With things going out of control, Alpesh’s strategy has backfired as it has put his party in an embarrassing spot. His friends — Patidar leader Hardik Patel and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani — have been forced to say that “Alpesh should be arrested if he is behind this violence’’.

But somewhere, Thakor’s messaging has hit home. Gujarat labour and employment minister Dilip Thakore spoke about 85% of jobs going to local youths. “We have so far held two meetings on the law for more employment opportunities to Gujaratis and those domiciled here. We have been taking legal opinion and studying policies of other states,” he said, adding, “The state has the power to make (such) rules. We are preparing a law that will make it mandatory for all industries coming to Gujarat to provide a minimum 85% of jobs to local Gujaratis. The government will help only those industries that are willing to follow this norm.