00:00 Yes, we are scared and we are Muslims.
00:02 We are targeted, we are told that we are 'Ghospati', 'this' and 'that'.
00:08 It hurts our hearts.
00:10 I am in Hubli city.
00:15 Hubli city is in Karnataka and is a part of the Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency.
00:20 With around 18 lakh voters, Hubli went to polls on May 7
00:24 in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections
00:26 after a highly polarised campaign by the Bharatiya Janata Party
00:30 of which the Election Commission also took note.
00:33 Communalism has nevertheless been a dominant driver of politics in North Karnataka
00:38 which is a high percentage of Muslim voters,
00:40 especially in Hubli where the issue of Eidga Maidan
00:43 has been a bone of communal contention since the 90s.
00:47 The issue of Eidga Maidan was a worldwide issue.
00:51 It was a flag-waving issue.
00:54 This issue has been created, it is not there.
00:57 This land belongs to corporation
01:00 but the Muslim community has the right to prayer twice a year.
01:06 This issue has been created day by day for the past 2-3 years.
01:09 The permission to build the Ganapati temple has been asked for.
01:12 Because the majority of the people here were BJP,
01:15 the Mayor was BJP, he passed the permission.
01:19 Since 2014, the national level BJP has come to power
01:24 again such activities to gain political mileage and to win the elections
01:30 these have again started happening in recent years.
01:32 While the Eidga issue remains on the back burner,
01:35 this year the murder of local student Neha Hiramath by her classmate Fayaz
01:40 became a point of polarisation with local BJP leaders calling it a case of love jihad.
01:46 Local residents however feel that the issue was politicised for elections.
01:51 What Fayaz did was wrong, this is very wrong.
01:56 As a Muslim we don't support him.
02:00 He had taken out a rally for DC, he had taken it to the DC office.
02:06 As you can see, it mentions 'Unhuman Islam Darwad'.
02:10 As a Muslim, we all condemned him for this.
02:14 He closed his shops that day.
02:17 Unity is here, Hindus and Muslims live together.
02:21 He should be condemned for the incident of the girl from that house.
02:25 And the issue of elections should not be raised.
02:29 But Muslim residents in Hubli Darwad feel that such issues have an impact on Hindu-Muslim relations.
02:35 It does have an impact, it has an impact on the environment.
02:38 We target people, we say that Muslims are like this, Muslims are like that.
02:44 One member made a mistake, so all people should not target him.
02:50 Many feel that under the noise of polarisation,
02:53 real issues of Muslim voters like unemployment and lack of basic facilities remain unaddressed.
02:59 Young girls are sitting idly, they are illiterate.
03:04 They are not getting any work. There are so many such girls and boys.
03:09 They are yearning for a small job, a job worth Rs 10,000-15,000.
03:14 There is no job.
03:16 I used to go every year.
03:18 Since the 10th, I have been left.
03:21 Because of my house, because of my problems, I have been left.
03:25 There is a little problem with water here.
03:28 Water comes here every 10 or 12 days.
03:31 And in between, 4-5 days, the water used to come from the chamber.
03:39 BJP Minister and incumbent Dharwad MP Prahlad Joshi has accused the Congress of appeasement politics.
03:46 The Hubli police station incident, where the mob gathered all of a sudden.
03:53 And they pelted the stone on the police station.
03:59 But as soon as they came, some Congress ministers, MLA writes, they are innocent people.
04:06 They should be released.
04:08 If this is the approach, then how can we combat terrorism?
04:12 That's why I think this Neha Erehmat murder also took place.
04:16 Because they are feeling that it is a safe haven for those people.
04:20 But families like that of Asif Yelivar, who was arrested under UAPA for a rioting case at Old Hubli police station in 2021,
04:28 allege discrimination against Muslim youth by lawmakers as well as the police.
04:34 My father went out for work after drinking tea in the morning.
04:38 I don't know why he was arrested. My father was not there.
04:42 After 10 months in prison, Yelivar is now paralysed and unemployed,
04:47 out on bail and fighting a lengthy legal battle to prove his innocence.
04:51 His family is struggling to make ends meet.
04:54 We were in a lot of pain. We left school and two brothers and went to work.
05:03 We make these vials. It costs Rs 50 to make four of them.
05:07 It is very painful in the back. You have to sit for a whole day to make them.
05:11 One day you can make four of them.
05:13 With increasingly communal speeches being made by leaders of the BJP,
05:17 voters in Hubli are hoping for an end to communal hate.
05:21 Hindu-Muslims have never come to our village.
05:24 We are all Muslims. We are all one.
05:33 We want the government to give all the rights to Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, etc.
05:43 [MUSIC]
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