Jamia residents vote with Batla House in mind

The voters of  Muslim-dominated Jamia Nagar exercised their franchise to remove the ‘terrorists haven’ tag for the area, and for justice in the Batla House encounter case.

Heavy footfall was seen at the polling booths from early morning in the area. From students to women  in burqa, everyone was seen standing in queues.

“In logon ne humare ilake ko bewajah badnaam kar rakha hai. Hum is baar ek aise leader ke liye vote karenge to Jamia Nagar ko insaaf dilaye or iske upar lage daag mita sake (some people have defamed this area unnecessarily. This time we are going to vote for a leader who can bring justice to Jamia Nagar),” said Asdar Ali, who had come to the polling booth with his family.

Asked about the problems of power supply and  water shortage, the residents said those were secondary issues.

“Despite of our repeated demands, the Congress government, which claims to have sympathy with Muslims, never constituted a special investigative team or order a judicial enquiry into the Batla House encounter,” said Sajid Khan, a Jamia Millia Islamia University student.

“Many youths are being picked up by the Special Cell of Delhi police on alleged terror charges and then they are being released. But no one is taking action against those policemen who are intentionally targeting youth of Jamia Nagar area,” the student said.

“No one can imagine how a person, who has been picked up once for interrogation of a few hours on charges of terrorism, spends his life. Residents of this area hesitate talking to such victims fearing that the police will pick them up to. Moreover, recently a senior leader of a national political party termed our area as a safe haven of terrorists,” Khan added.

Izhar Ahmad, an RTI activist, claimed the political parties are just using Muslims as their vote bank and none of them are serious with the problems they face.
“No one has ever asked why we are living in this congested area with so much of problems. We actually don’t have any choice. Whenever a youth from interiors of UP and Bihar comes to Delhi in search for a job, he goes to the property dealers in various areas to take a house on rent. But the property dealers never show them any flat. Ultimately they have to come to the Jamia Nagar area for a rented accommodation,” he said.

There is also a sort of anger in the residents against the media. They accused especially electronic media for playing the NaMo chant. “This Modi wave is created by the TV news channels. Why have they forgotten the Gujarat riots?” said Shabnam Khan, a Journalism student.