Click to play videoVadodara / New Delhi: In the past few years Vadodara has been witness to civil unrest and the social fabric of the city has been severely damaged but now many feel that the two Pathan brothers, who are recently back from the Twenty20 World Cup, will help bridge the divide between the warring communities.
Irfan and Yusuf Pathan, sons of a local muezzin, are the toast of Vadodara. At the city’s famous MS University, students see them as role models.
“It gives me and my friends great pride that the brothers belong to this city,” a student said.
While another student stressed upon the fact that “it is not just Vadodara but the entire country looked up to them.”
The university like the city has been witness to an attack on its secular fabric. Only a few months ago, an art exhibition was attacked and the dean of arts was removed for allegedly depicting art that offended the sentiments of a community.
In 2002, Vadodara witnessed brutal rioting and the city remains a sensitive to communal flare-ups.
“Since the riots the rift between the communities has widened. With our boys like the Pathan brothers and Munaf Patel doing well in sports, communities are coming together again,” JS Bandukwala from the city’s M S University said.
But now despite the communal divide, local Gujarati newspapers, often accused of being soft on Hindutva, have put the two brothers on the front page.
With elections in Gujarat just two months away, political parties too are joining the bandwagon. While the Congress has accused the Narendra Modi government of delaying rewards to the Pathan duo, the Chief Minister has publicly praised their mother for challenging Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik’s apology to all Muslims for losing to India.
“I facilitate the statement by Pathan’s mother,” Narendra Modi said.
But as the battle begins to appropriate the Pathans, Vadodora may need more than just a pair of cricketing successes to bring back its original tradition of inter-community harmony.
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