Mahagun moderne row brings india’s class divide out in the open

Mahagun Moderne, a plush 25-acre campus of homes that is described as a “mirror that taste of affluent class and include an array of space options”. Despite that opaque and confounding

description, it’s a fairly posh self-contained set of luxury flats. With super marts, ATMs, food outlets and several other facilities available within its walls, not to mention electric

carts to fetch you from all of these places, life in Mahagun Moderne may seem right out of a Karan Johar blockbuster. It looks inviting. It speaks of wealth and all that comes with it. There

are several such fully functional real estate projects in Sector 78 of Noida with even more under construction. But once you cross these high rises, far from its shadows lies a metro

construction site. Overlooking this, is grassland, with clusters of tin-walled structures—home to rickshaw pullers, domestic workers, construction labour and carpenters. This is Barola

village. Narzina Bibi’s face is pale, her hair askew. She flashed her family’s and her Aadhaar cards, voter cards and even her daughter’s birth certificate. She pointed to her address-Cooch

Behar, West Bengal. Narzina is a domestic worker at one of the high rise buildings. She moved into this _basti_ along with her family only four to five months ago. “_Kaun keh raha hai hume

Bangladeshi_ (Who is calling us Bangladeshi)?” Narzina said in a thick Bengali accent. Narzina’s husband Jobed Ali Miya was picked up by the Noida police along with 12 others for rioting.

The residents of Mahagun Moderne, woke up to an angry mob of over 300 people from the Barola village on July 12 who believed one of its residents had assaulted a domestic worker. Not just

Narzina, all the residents of the village held their identity proofs in hand to prove that they belonged to this country and were not immigrants from Bangladesh. “_Bol rahe hai ki akhbaar me

likha hai ye sab Bangladeshi hai_ (People are saying that newspapers say that we are from Bangladesh),” said Aziz-Ur-Rehman who came to visit his brother and sister’s family after the

incident. In a statement to the police, Zora said she had only sought two months’ salary (Rs 12,000) from her employers. “But instead of paying what was owed to me, they accused me of

stealing Rs 17,000 from the house. I was beaten up. I fled to the basement of the apartment complex in terror, and the guards brought me out early this morning”. Narzina is Zora Bibi’s

neighbour. The 26-year-old domestic worker at Mahagun Moderne, was accused of stealing money from her employer Mitul Sethi and was allegedly beaten by them. The tension in the air is thick.

There is anger, but also fear. Maids have stopped going to work. “_Is halat me sab dare hue hai, kaun jaega kaam karne ke liye_ (Every one is scared, who would go to work)?” said Aziz. “Aaj

kisi ko jhootha ilzam me phasa raha hai kal kisi aur ko phasa dega (Today they are making false allegations against one person, tomorrow it will be someone else),” he added. The landscape of

the area paints a stark picture of the class divide that exists in upcoming cities like Noida. “_Police waley gareeb aadmi dekhke gareeb ko dhamka ke le ja rahe hai_ (The police are

threatening and only picking up the poor),” Aziz told _Newslaundry. _“_Gareeb ke khilaf hi sab _hota_ hai_ (Everything happens against the poor),” murmured another villager. Zora, Nazrina

and many other women in the colony have ID cards from the respective societies they work in. The _basti_ they live in now, is only as old as the high rise buildings. One of the villagers

told _Newslaundry _that Zora’s colony was barely a year old while surrounding neighbourhood was over two years old. These clusters exist solely to serve the high rises that tower over them.

The adjacent colonies of _jhuggis _displayed a remarkable contrast to Zora’s. No one was worried, or concerned. No one seemed to be aware of the incident, or were only peripherally aware.

“_Hume nahi pata kya hua, hum yaha nahi they_ (I don’t know what happened here, I wasn’t here),” said Haseeruddin, a carpenter who chose to sit far away from all the chaos brewing in Zora’s

colony. The colony of the metro construction workers appeared sympathetic but did not share the same sense of outrage as their neighbours. “_Agar usne chori bhi ki thi toh police ko bulana

tha na,_ (if she had stolen money, they should’ve called the police),” said a worker who, however, admitted that beating her for asking for her salary was wrong. Zora wasn’t the only

domestic worker in the colony. Lakshmi, who also works in Mahagun Moderne, sat on the floor, still grappling with the repercussions of the incident. “_Kisi ko andar nahi jane de rahe hai,

sabko kamwale ke liye mana kar rahe hai jane ke liye_ (They’re not letting anyone of the workers inside),” she said. Lakshmi lives in another colony of domestic labourers from Uttar Pradesh.

“_Arey woh toh Bengali hai isliye darr gaye, hum hotey toh ye naubat na aati_,(Oh, because those people are Bengali [read, could be Bangladeshi] that’s why the apartment people are scared.

This would never happen with us)” said Lakshmi’s friend. Today, none of the villagers know who all went to Mahagun Moderne on the morning of July 12. “_Hum nahi gaye they_”, “_Humara aadmi

nirdosh hai_”, “_Hum duty kar rahe they railway station par_ (We weren’t there, our men are innocent, we were working at the railway station)” are the various narratives echoing in the

village. However, there was one person who was visibly pale but was willing to share his ordeal of looking for his neighbour. Take a look. Indad-Ul-Haque’s name is also in the First

Information Report, the villagers confirmed to _Newslaundry. _The Superintendent of Police (City) Arun Kumar Singh told us that four FIRs have been filed regarding the incident. Three from

the residents’ side and one by Zora’s husband Abdul Sattar. While there are various versions from the villagers and news reports about where Zora was after the alleged fight with her

employer, according to the complaint filed by her husband, she was hiding in the basement. “…_uski madam Ashu ne use saath maar-peet ki raat bhar maara-peeta, usne madam se maheeney ki

tankhaw mangi toh uski madam ne usey maara-peeta, usko kapde bhi faad diye, baad me Zora maar ke dar se basement me chhupi rahi_… [sic] (Her madam Ashu beat her when she asked her for her

monthly salary, she tore Zora’s clothes so she hid in the basement out of fear),” read the FIR, a copy of which is with _Newslaundry__. _ FIRs have been filed by Zora’s employers, Harshu and

Mitul Sethi, the security guards and by the society residents of Mahagun Moderne for creating a riot-like situation, Singh confirmed_. _Though 13 people were arrested on Wednesday night and

about 50 people questioned in this regard, the police didn’t clarify if any action has been taken against the employers yet. Today, the tin door of Zora’s house remains locked. Meanwhile,

people in the village are petrified that the police could break into their house any time. “Didi [Mamata Banerjee] _hoti toh turant pahunch jaati. Gareeb ka madad bohot karti hai didi_ (If

Didi were here, she would’ve visited us. She helps the poor a lot),” Aziz and several other villagers said univocally. THE AUTHOR CAN BE REACHED ON TWITTER AT @SHRUTIMENON10.