Why has VHP chosen Pirana for its meet, ask villagers

Pirana, a sleepy village 25 km from Ahmedabad city, is worried that Bakr-Id on November 7 this year may not pass off peacefully.
The village has an almost equal number of Hindus and Muslims, which seems but natural as the 600-year-old dargah (shrine) of Sufi saint Imam Shah Baba is located here. The saint had devotees from both the communities and his dargah is still visited by Hindus as well as Muslims.

However, despite its tradition of Hindu-Muslim amity, Pirana’s fragile peace is again under threat. From November 5, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is organising a three-day conference - called Dharm Prasar Akhil Bharatiya Karyakarta Sammelan - in the village. The VHP has decided to lodge people coming for the conference at the dargah of the Sufi saint while the conference itself will be held at the village’s Gurukul School which is run by the RSS.

Peace loving residents of the village are afraid that there may be conflict at the dargah on November 7, the day of Bakr-Id.

They said that a large number of Muslims will go to the mosque in the dargah to offer namaz that day though many hundreds of VHP members will still be there for the last day of the conference. The villagers fear that even a small argument may lead to violence in the village on Bakr-Id.

The dargah is managed by a trust known as Imam Shah Baba Roza Sansthan which has 10 members, seven of whom are Hindus and the other three Muslims.

The Hindu followers of the Sufi saint are called are Satpanthis - i.e., Hindu members of the Satpanth sect propagated by the Sufi saint himself. The Muslim devotees, on the other hand, are called Shahdads and they claim to be the descendants of the saint himself.  Though Pirana was for long a symbol of communal harmony, relations between the two major communities have deteriorated over the last three decades mainly because of disputes over the management of the dargah trust.

The Shahdads are suspicious of the VHP's intentions. "The question is why did the VHP chose Pirana in the whole of Gujarat for such an event? They want to cause tension in the area," said Saiyed Nuroddin Bada Miyan, one of the trustees of the dargah.
Saiyed Murza Ali Nazar Ali, president of Imam Shahi Sadat Committee (comprising the three Shahdad members of the dargah trust) also said that the VHP conference will destroy the peace in the village. He has written letters to the Ahmedabad district police, the collector and the state's Governor to inform them about the situation in the village.

He said that one of the trustees of the dargah, Bhimji Karsanbhai, also happens to be a secretary of the Gurukul School where the conference is to be held. "This is a clear indication of an attempt by some organisations to turn the dargah into a communal issue," Ali said.

A prominent villager said on the condition of anonymity that both the factions of the trust have been accusing each other of turning the Sufi shrine into a battleground for religious domination. "The trust's internal conflicts have acquired a communal colour, and organizations such as the VHP and Bajrang Dal are trying to take advantage of it," he said.

However, one of the Satpanthi trustees of the shrine, Manibhai Patel, denied that the conference had anything to do with the dargah. He reiterated that only the followers of Nanak Shahji Maharaj (the current in-charge of the seat) will stay at the dargah during the conference. Patel said that if some VHP members are the followers of the Maharaj, how can we stop them from entering the shrine?

Rajiv Ranjan Bhagat, superintendent of police, Ahmedabad (rural) said that he has asked the organisers to give details of the entire programme before they are granted police permission for the event.

He said that police need to know what exactly the oganisers will be doing at the conference.

Bhagat further said that as the dargah is a symbol of communal harmony, he has asked all the trustees to come to a consensus which gives nobody a reason for complaint.

Sources in the police said that more than 300 policemen are likely to be deployed in the village during the three-day conference. The district police have also asked for extra police personnel to secure the dargah and the whole village.