Delhi told: Modi detractors close to ex-CM Keshubhai Patel behind Gujarat Patidar stir

Patidar leader Hardik Patel, 22

A well-informed official source close to the political establishment has conveyed to the Government of India, particularly the Prime Minister’s Office and the intelligence-gathering network working for it, that Narendra Modi’s former detractors in Gujarat BJP are behind the current Patidar (or Patel) caste stir for reservation that has engulfed the state.
The source has told Counterview on condition of anonymity that, in the report, sent to Delhi, it has been “specifically mentioned that circles to top Modi detractor and his predecessor in Gujarat, ex-chief minister Keshubhai Patel” were backing the Patels’ well-represented rallies, whether it is North Gujarat towns, or Surat, or Ahmedabad.
The source said, the report sent to Delhi “specifically mentions” a few of the names of diamond tycoons of Surat, belonging to the Patel community, who had been close to Keshubhai Patel’s earlier anti-Modi movements and have been funding his supporters even now.
It is well known that these diamond tycoons, belonging to Amreli district of the Saurashtra region and settled in Surat, had all along strongly supported Keshubhai Patel in organizing an aborted Patel farmers’ movement during the second half of 2000s.
The report has been sent even as political circles, both of the BJP and the Congress, are keeping their fingers crossed as to who is behind the Patidar reservation stir. While maintaining that the entire movement is spontaneous, there is a sense of frustration: That the the stir has metamorphosed into a major mobilization. AT least a big section of the BJP leaders has begun sounding sympathetic to it.
Gujarat BJP chief RC Faldu, belonging to the same Patel sub-caste to which Keshubhai Patel belongs, Leuva, has said that the state government should “look into” the demand for quota for Patels and other poor families from other upper caste communities.
“Taking into account the sensitivity of the issue, we have told the government it is high time that it gave a serious thought to the difficulties faced not only by children of the Patidars, but also by children of economically backward families of other upper castes”, Faldu has been quoted as saying in Rajkot, which is the business nerve-centre of Saurashtra.
Earlier, a speaking at a ceremony in Dhari town of Amreli district, local BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya, who had joined Keshubhai Patel’s now disbanded Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP), declared his open support to Patel agitation.
“Having been born in a Patel family and having been elected MLA by votes of Patels, it is my moral duty to stand by them. Therefore, if Patel community wishes that I should resign as an MLA and support them openly, I am ready to do so,” Kotadiya told a news channel. Kotadia also belongs to Keshubhai’s Leuva Patel sub-caste.
A senior politician from Saurashtra, meanwhile, told Counterview that the Patel reservation stir was “largely spontaneous” and “nobody was supporting it from outside.” When told that a report had been sent to Delhi which identivies circles close to Keshubhai Patel were behind the stir, he insisted, “This could be to please the masters that the real 'culprits' had been found.”
According to this politician, the main leader, a young man, Hardik Patel, 22, who is convener of the Sardar Patel Sevadal, which is leading the stir, was on social media and supporting Congress MLA fighting from Viramgam constituency in Ahmedabad district, Tejashtree Patel, during the assembly elections in 2012-end.
“Very few in Viramgam saw Hardik’s social media comment, yet the Congress offered him to be in the party, which he refused”, the politician said, adding, “After Tejashreeben Patel was elected, Hardik, who belongs to a well-to-do family, began taking revenge from the BJP: The family was harassed post-polls for his support to the Congress.”

Comments

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. I don't know who owns this site, for there is nothing on it in the About Us link. It merely says, the Nashik Corporation site "is an educational and news website of the municipal corporation. Today, education and payment of tax are completely online." It goes on to add, "So we provide some of the latest information about Property Tax, Water Tax, Marriage Certificate, Caste Certificate, etc. So all taxpayer can get all information of their municipal in a single place.some facts about legal and financial issues that different city corporations face, but I was least interested in them." Surely, this didn't interest...

Disappearing schools: India's education landscape undergoing massive changes

The other day, I received a message from education rights activist Mitra Ranjan, who claims that a whopping one lakh schools across India have been closed down or merged. This seemed unbelievable at first sight. The message from the activist, who is from the advocacy group Right to Education (RTE) Forum, states that this is happening as part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, which floated the idea of school integration/consolidation.

'Shameful lies': Ambedkar defamed, Godse glorified? Dalit leader vows legal battle

A few days back, I was a little surprised to receive a Hindi article in plain text format from veteran Gujarat Dalit rights leader Valjibhai Patel , known for waging many legal battles under the banner of the Council of Social Justice (CSJ) on behalf of socially oppressed communities.

Varnashram Dharma: How Gandhi's views evolved, moved closer to Ambedkar's

My interaction with critics and supporters of Mahatma Gandhi, ranging from those who consider themselves diehard Gandhians to Left-wing and Dalit intellectuals, has revealed that in the long arc of his public life, few issues expose his philosophical tensions more than his shifting stance on Varnashram Dharma—the ancient Hindu concept that society should be divided into four varnas, or classes, based on duties and aptitudes.

The tribal woman who carried freedom in her songs... and my family’s secret in her memory

It was a pleasant surprise to come across a short yet crisp article by the well-known Gujarat-based scholar Gaurang Jani , former head of the Sociology Department at Gujarat University , on a remarkable grand old lady of Vedcchi Ashram —an educational institute founded by Mahatma Gandhi in South Gujarat in the early years of the freedom movement.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

Not a natural disaster; climate crisis driven by support to fossil fuel tycoons: Expert

India must confront its accelerating ecological emergency with systemic reforms rather than symbolic gestures, climate and energy expert Soumya Dutta warned during an interactive workshop in Ahmedabad titled “India’s Environmental Crisis: Where Do We Go From Here Living?”. Introduced by Jesuit activist Cedric Prakash as both a scientist and people’s movement organiser, Dutta said India was already facing life-threatening consequences of environmental neglect.

100 yrs of RSS as seen by global media house: Power, controversy, push for Hindu-first India

On a blistering summer evening in Nagpur, nearly a thousand men in brown trousers, white shirts, and black caps stood in formation as a saffron flag was raised, marking a graduation ceremony for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers. This vivid scene, described in a recent FT Weekend Magazine article, “A hundred years after it was founded, India's Hindu-nationalist movement is getting closer to its goal of a Hindu-first state,” captures the enduring presence of the RSS, a century-old Hindu-nationalist organization.

Search This Blog