`Face` of Gujarat riots Qutubuddin Ansari miffed with political parties, says `stop using me`

Ahmedabad: Qutubuddin Ansari, a tailor whose image of grief-stricken face and folded hands came to symbolise the agony of the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots, has taken a strong exception to Congress' decision of using his pictures for its election campaign in Assam.

As per a report published in Mumbai Mirror, Ansari is miffed with the Congress, which is trying to attract the electorate by using his defining photo.

Ansari was quoted as saying whenever a political party uses his photo for political gains, his life becomes miserable.

Without taking names of any political outfit, Ansari had said that some members of political parties believe that I intentionally allow some parties to use my picture and this makes my life even more complicated.

He further said that it's been 14 years since 2002 riots happened, but he continues to be used and misused by political parties, Bollywood and even terror outfits.

On the last day of campaigning in Assam, Congress issued a full-page advertisement featuring Ansari and questioned Narendra Modi's Gujarat model of development.

Teary-eyed photos of Ansari, a tailor, begging with folded hands for mercy from the violent mob had made him the 'face' of the Gujarat riots.

Soon after the riots, Ansari had moved to Kolkata but later returned to Gujarat.

The photo of Ansari, with bloodshot eyes and fear writ large on his contorted visage, and hands folded in helpless submission to escape mob fury, had become the defining image of the human tragedy that visited Gujarat.