Since 2002, when the worst riots since India's partition left an estimated 2,000 Muslims dead in the western state of Gujarat, thousands have been pushed off the map and have little faith in the world's largest democracy.

‘How would you feel if you have to live below a mountain of litter and drink polluted water everyday?’ said Riana Bano, a Muslim widow and mother of four girls.

Bano's husband was murdered and the family house looted by Hindu fanatics in the communal riots that swept across the state.

The pogrom was in retaliation for an alleged attack by Muslims on a train that left 59 Hindus dead, although a central government probe later found the train fire to be an accident.

But it's a story that won't go away, with the shadow of the massacres still hanging over the state as its turn comes on Thursday to vote in India's month-long general elections.

On Monday, India's top court ordered a fresh probe into the role of Gujarat's hardline chief minister Narendra Modi  seen by BJP supporters as a possible future prime minister and 60 others accused in one of the 1,400 riot cases registered by the police.

But many Muslims here, some of whom are still trying get their complaints heard in court, say they have little hope the chapter will be satisfactorily closed.

‘These court orders and elections bring no change in the lives of Muslims most of whom suffer from various health ailments and chronic depression, said Rama Sen, who runs a school for riot-affected children in Ahmedabad,Gujarat's main city.

While the state government, run by the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stands accused of turning a blind eye to the killings and even orchestrating the riots, Muslims see little to root for in the other parties.

The incumbent Congress party, for example, has been accused of only paying an interest in the lives of Muslims at election time promising more jobs, better opportunities and improved safety.

Muslim community leaders in Gujarat and across the country say those promises have not been translated into real improvements in the situation of the country's largest minority.

‘I will not caste my vote. Voting will bring no difference to my life,’ said Sheikh Abdul Majid, who lives in a fly-infested house in Ahmedabad and feeds his children with stale food he picks up in the nearby dump.

Majid said that although the train fire was deemed by an official probe to be an accident, his young son was arrested by local police for allegedly causing the fire in line with the BJP's view that Muslims were to blame.

He said his son has been held without trial since 2003, while most Hindus accused of killing Muslims and burning their houses have been released.

‘Courts will pass orders, a new government will be formed, promises will be made to us,’ said Hijam Sheikh a Muslim sweeper who said he witnessed the murder of his pregnant wife by a Hindu mob in 2002.
‘But nothing changes here.’