Use of force against Patidar agitators gives fresh life to dying agitation, CM orders probe

GANDHINAGAR: Tuesday's police action against Patidar agitators seeking quotas gave a fresh lease of life to the stir that appeared to be petering out after a public rift in the leadership and the melodramatic decision of the 22-year-old campaign leader Hardik Patel to sit on a fast till the chief minister intervened personally.

But the use of force by the cops to clear off the venue and the brief detention of Patel triggered violence, which is now construed as part of a larger design to escalate tension in a state which is already on the boil. "The entire development of Tuesday appears to have followed a conspiracy to trigger large scale disturbance across the state," said Arjun Modvadia, former President of Gujarat Pradesh Congress. "Otherwise what could be the reason for the police to go to GMDC ground in the evening and brutally beat up peaceful protesters along with mediamen when the situation was under control?" he wondered.

The chief minister has ordered an enquiry into the reasons leading to such an action by the police.

Patel's antecedents have also added to the speculation. While images of him carrying a gun were already doing the rounds, another picture of him with a gun tied to his waist and posing with Vishwa Hindu Parishad's international secretary Pravin Togadia has now come to light. His pictures with another Patidar leader Gordhan Zadaphiya too are being floated.

While Patel had earlier admitted to ET that he was in touch with Patidar leaders as a member of Sardar Patel Group in Viramgam, his reference to the wider Patidar community and reaching out to Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar as "one of us" had certainly raised eyebrows. BJP leader Gordhan Zadafiya has been meeting the Kurmi Kshatriya groups for quite some time and attending various programmes across UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in his capacity as president of Akhil Bharatiya Sardar Patel Mahasabha.


ET View: Government needs to learn to allow, and oppose, other voices

Over the past few weeks, Hardik Patel has emerged as an effective Patel aggregator. And if his demand for OBC status for the Patidar community is the algorithm driving this app, much of the blame for things coming to such a pass lies in the Gujarat administration’s inability to deal with politics that lie outside its control. Chief minister Anandiben Patel’s government continues the tradition that her predecessor had etched out for the state: shutting out alternative, never mind oppositional, voices. The agitation is a response to this vacuum. What the government needs to do is learn to listen, allow other political spaces, even as it opposes a regressive and dangerous demand like reservations.