Posted by on April 07, 19102 at 10:35:45:

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, APRIL 04, 2002 11:31:09 PM ]

HARUCH: In the first week of March, a UK-based family while returning from Ajmer, India was stranded on the Himmatnagar highway. Mobs attacked the family, killing one while three went missing. The NRI family was from Leicester and had come on a vacation to meet their relatives in Bharuch.

Almost a month after that incident, a lot of Muslim families in this town and district are planning to pack bags and fly off to the UK. Those who had resources, and there are plenty of them here, have already moved out. Every day the Paschim Express chugging out of the Bharuch railway station is on an average carrying four families who will fly to Europe, never to return to their native place.

‘‘Farewell India, I will not return,’’ a pensive looking Asif Patel tells himself after having a last look at the Bharuch railway station. He is about to board the Mumbai bound Paschim express along with brother Mustaq and uncle Abdul Master. ‘‘We are going to Bolton. We don’t intend to return. We will try to call our relatives from here and help them settle in UK,’’ says Patel. He belongs to Sherpura, a village on the fringes of Bharuch town.

Every house in Sherpura has a member settled in Britain. The pattern is similar in most villages of the Bharuch district be it Kantharia, Manubar, Kalmar, Vahlu, Dehgam, Rahadpur, Nandeva, Tankaria etc.

‘‘The violence has upset us greatly. My son is in the UK. I was there for about three months. My friends urged me to settle down in the UK but I insisted on returning to my country. Now in retrospect I regret my decision,’’ says Bashir Sheikh, a civil engineer staying in Mohammedpura.

London city, Bolton, Preston, Blackburn, Bharuch diaspora has spread to every county in the UK and as one talks to residents here the exodus seems imminent. ‘‘There is no scope here. Business is in ruins, jobs out of question, ghettoisation is becoming way of surviving and mistrust and the gulf of difference between communities is ever increasing. The intelligent option is to move out,’’ says Illyas, a former student of Narmada college.

"Bharuch is full of NRIs. Most families have links in Britain. Post Godhra carnage and subsequent communal violence, investments have dried up. Those who were planning to plough back money to their home district have shelved those plans. My own son wanted to set up a clothing factory here but now he has chosen Swaziland in South Africa,’’ says former MLA and president of the Bombay Patel Welfare Society of Bharuch, Muhammed Patel.

He confirms that those who have the possibility of getting out of India will not wait. ‘‘Gujarat’s image has been tarnished, social system has collapsed and community integration has become a difficult task. There is complete erosion of faith in administration and state. How would you go out and convince people of staying back? What assurances you will offer them?’’ Patel asks.

Bharuch collector Anju Sharma remains optimistic. ‘‘This is an NRI district but despite uncertainty and apprehension I don’t see any signs of large scale exodus,’’ she says.

The ground reality is not as the collector would wish. Immigration agents are in demand and frantic calls are being made to relatives in the UK, virtually from every house here. Desperation has set in with no sign of any let up. At least, for the time being.

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