Unrest in Old City, thanks to politicians

Hyderabad, January 28: Little did people know that the banner publicizing the Aarthi on January 27 put up on the walls of the temple abutting the Charminar about four days ago would ring in trouble. In their effort to draw crowds, the involved political groups even took to social networking sites such as Facebook to publicise the event. There were communities active on the site asking people to join the mega event in large numbers and make it successful. Text messages too were beeping on the phones of the Old City residents for the last few days.

Residents said that rumours of some unrest during the Friday prayers were doing the rounds since Thursday and a tense atmosphere prevailed in many parts of the Old City. Many who were scheduled to go to the mosque for the Friday prayers decided against it apprehending trouble.

"Never in the history of the temple had such a big crowd gathered during Friday prayers. This is nothing but an attempt to create disturbance in the peaceful atmosphere here by the political groups," said a shopkeeper close to Charminar. He added that the turnout at the temple on Fridays is usually lesser compared to the other weekdays.

The Old City residents and traders said they had enough of politicians whipping up communal passions, that too when people were living peacefully with each other. "In my locality, on one side there is a Hindu population living and on the other, it is the Muslim population. We are living peacefully without any hassles for years now," said Girish Kumar Malpani, a resident of Shah Ali Banda.

Many rued that while the city is truly secular in its character and fabric, instances such as these lead to problems. "Politicians need an excuse to create trouble. Hyderabadis are secular but it's the politicians and their agents brought from other states who foment this nonsense," said Mohammed Najeeb, a resident of Yakutpura. He added that it is best that the public exercises restraint otherwise if they react, they themselves will end up becoming the victims.

Traders condemned the incident and said they feared a backlash. They said that if such incidents become regular, they would have to shut shop. "If such unrest continues, families and tourists will not prefer coming here. As it is, there has been a dip in the number of customers due to various reasons. The business community irrespective of the religion will be hugely affected if such incidents become a regular affair," said Rajesh Agarwal, a trader from Gulzar Ho-uz.Residents said they were glad that the other political party steered clear of the whole issue thereby ensuring there wasn't any big problem. If shopkeepers rued the impact of the incident on their businesses, residents said that the happening on Friday was an attempt of some political groups to make their presence felt.

Courtesy: Times