Calcutta, Oct. 7: Bengal had invited and given shelter to Qutubuddin Ansari, the face of the Gujarat riots, to shame Narendra Modi’s brand of politics.

Six years later, Modi has hit back by providing a home to the Nano project, a victim of Bengal’s age-old street politics.

Just as Mamata Banerjee’s agitation has driven the Tatas out of Bengal, Ansari had to flee Gujarat after the 2002 riots.

He had become the symbol of the riots’ human tragedy after his picture — pleading for his life with folded hands, eyes tearful and wide with fear — was splashed in the media. The publicity prompted the tailor to flee to his sister’s place in Malegaon, Maharashtra, but leading a normal life became impossible there too.

Social activist Teesta Setalvad then contacted CPM MP Mohammad Salim, then a minister in Bengal, to ask him if Ansari could be rehabilitated here.

“Salim assured Setalvad he would ensure economic rehabilitation for Ansari in Calcutta, and he arrived in this city in mid-2002,” a CPM leader said.

Salim today said from Port Blair: “Ansari was put up in a house on Darga Road and all arrangements made so that he could lead a normal life. He told us he wanted his daughter admitted to school and we did that. His neighbours liked him a lot and he participated in a rakhi festival. We organised machines required for his (tailoring) work.’’

After the UPA came to power in 2004 at the Centre, Ansari returned to Gujarat, where things had cooled down by then.