AHMEDABAD, July 17: For Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, symbols, statues and photographs all seem to be part of the political game. After acquiring the dubious distinction of becoming the first Chief Minister of an outside state to announce ex-gratia for Dalit victims of police firing in Mumbai, Vaghela on Wednesday tried to portray himself as the messiah of Dalits.Whether his new-found love was real or aimed at gaining political clout was difficult to say, but Vaghela did ensure that a photograph of B R Ambedkar in a golden frame was placed right behind him at the conference hall in Circuit House here where he addressed mediapersons.The publicity-conscious Chief Minister refused to divulge the reason for the big photograph, but stressed that he would not let any injustice be perpetuated on Dalits.However, his pro-Dalit talk was unconvincing as he did not visit the city's violence-affected areas till 9 pm though he was less than a kilometre away from the scene of disturbances. His Minister of State for Home Affairs (Independent charge) Vipul Choudhry and Labour Minister Kantilal Solanki, himself a Dalit follwed thier leader and stayed away. Choudhry and Solanki were with Vaghela during the press conference.The Government-sponsored bandh, the Chief Minister said, was an expression of Dalit fury and very justified. The violence, according to him, was an expression of Dalit wrath. ``The Government is sympathetic towards the Dalits and we share the sentiments of the Dalits who have remained oppressed till now''.He, however, clarified that the police had been instructed to impose curfew in disturbed areas and ensure that the public was not harassed.About whether it was okay for a Chief Minister to seek dismissal of the Shiv Sena-BJP Government in Maharashtra, he retorted, ``if Sitaram Kesri can do so, why can't I? This is my way of favouring the Dalit movement. What do you expect me to do. Go to Mumbai and stage a protest there?''.Claiming that the bandh was 90 per cent successful in Gujarat, he warned that the Bharatiya Janata Party was planning to stoke communal passions in the state and turn this issue into a Hindu-Muslim clash.Meanwhile, the curfew imposed in Morvi town in Saurashtra, Gandhidham town in the arid Kutch district and areas under nine police stations in Ahmedabad city yesterday was lifted at 0630 hrs today. However as a precautionary measure, adequate security arrangements have been made to normalise the situation.The police control room said that the curfew imposed in Chandkheda area in Gandhinagar district last evening continued to remain in force.Later, the police lobbed a dozen teargas shells to quell a stone throwing mob at Meghaninagar in Shahibag area of the city after lifting of the curfew. In another incident, irate mob attacked residential areas of amraiwadi area of the city and police fired 50 rounds and burst 200 teargas shells to quell the mob.In all police had fired 70 rounds and lobbed more than 900 teargas shells yesterday to control the situation in the disturbed areas of the city. More than 300 people were taken into custody and 30 people were injured either in teargassing or firing.
