BUSINESSMEN AGAINST MANDIR-MASJID POLITICS

BUSINESSMEN AGAINST MANDIR-MASJID POLITICS

Having suffered enormous losses in the wave of communal violence after the Ayodhya episode, businessmen' and traders all over the country are perturbed about the growing communal divide and lawlessness. A Times of India survey of the business community in major urban centres reveals that it desperately yearns for peaceful resolution of divisive conflicts and is fairly united in its opposition to politics of communalism and the increasing proclivity of political parties to mix religion with politics. The near-unanimous condemnation by businessmen of the political forces and practices which have disrupted normal life in the country is understandable considering the hefty losses inflicted by riots in production and distribution of goods and destruction of property. Losses in Bombay alone are estimated at about Rs. 2,000 crores caused by the disruption in trade and production and destruction of property and goods. In Ahmedabad and Surat, these are expected to be in the region of Rs 3,000 crores. However, since the entire industrial belt stretching from Bombay to Surat and Ahmedabad has strong bonds of interdependence across the country, these estimates represent only part of the loss inflicted by communal violence. SAURASHTRA CALM: The Saurashtra region for instance, barring a few stray incidents remained calm and quiet. Yet rioting in Bombay and Ahmedabad disrupted both trade and manufacturing. As a director of the Rajkot engineering association, Mr. Vajubhai Mavani said: 'with Bombay shut, it was just impossible to send goods there. And with Ahmedabad in a state of disarray, there was no way of getting either raw materials or sending goods.' A measure of the loss is provided by the Rajkot municipal corporation's income from octroi which in normal times averaged Rs. 5 lakh's a day. In the week after the Ayodhya episode it dipped to a measly Rs 75,000 per day. According to one estimate Gujarat as a whole may have suffered unprecedented losses worth nearly Rs. 12,000 crores spread across most sectors of trade and manufacturing like textiles, engineering, and industrial raw materials. The impact of Bombay and Gujarat spread right across the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh which has major industrial estates at Indore, Pithampur, Dewas and Ujjain. Trade and transport operations were also hit hard affecting truckers and merchants and manufacturers dealing in textiles, bullion and engineering goods. Karnataka could not remain unaffected either. According to the President of the Federation of Karnataka chamber of commerce and industry, the state lost over Rs 100 cores as the entire mercantile activity was affected for a couple of weeks because of problems arising from riots in Bombay. Trucks remained off the roads, goods either kept piling up in factories or were stuck in Bombay and raw materials were in short supply. The leather industry, garment manufacturers and chemicals and automobile traders were the worst hit. The communal violence in Jaipur inflicted losses worth about Rs. 200 crores, claims Mr. K.L. Jain, general secretary of the Rajasthan chamber of commerce and industry. Apart from he small-scale sector and the export-oriented gems and jewellery industry, riots had a severe impact on small shopkeepers, tea-stall owners and kiosks selling pan and cigarettes.