The Patidar agitation in Gujarat turned violent on Tuesday evening as the Ahmedabad police briefly detained 22-year-old Hardik Patel, who had started an indefinite fast to demand reservations for his community under the Other Backward Classes category. As mobs attacked police posts and buses across the state, curfew was imposed in Mehsana and some parts of Surat.
The homes of three ministers belonging to the Patel community were also attacked.
Patel was taken into custody at the GMDC grounds in western Ahmedabad, where he had called a rally to press for the community's demands. He insisted that the agitation would continue until Chief Minister Anandiben Patel personally came to the venue to receive a memorandum of demands framed by the Patidar Anamat (Reservation) Andolan Samiti and not the District Collector.
The agitation threatens to trigger off a caste war in the state. The Gujarat government has set up a seven-member ministerial committee led by senior minister Nitin Patel to hear the grievances of the Patels but has not yet bowed them. Members of OBC communities as well as of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are gearing up to counter any move to include the Patels in the reserved category as this would stretch the quota for seats in educational establishments and government jobs even thinner.
They maintain that the Kadva Patels and the Leuva Patels are rich landowners who do not need these reservations.
At the rally earlier in the day, Hardik Patel warned that the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has ruled Gujarat for two decades, could lose its grip on the state if it ignored the Patidars. “Only if our demands are met will the lotus bloom in the 2017 assembly elections in Gujarat or else never again," he said.
Choosing to speak in Hindi, he said, “We may be 1.8 crore in Gujarat, but nationally we are 27 crore. Chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar is from our community and so is Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu. In all, we have 117 Patidar members of parliament. This demonstrates our strength and reach”.
He said that the Gujjars of Rajasthan who had locked horns with their government over reservation benefits had extended support to the Patels. "We are prepared to go to Gandhinagar and to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi if our demands are not met," he threatened.
Significantly, the Anandiben Patel government, overawed by the agitation that has grown to a state-level movement, waived the road toll for all vehicles en route to the rally and did not charge the protestors the usual fee for using the GMDC ground. The district collector of Ahmedabad was directed to go to the venue to receive their charter of demands. When Hardik Patel, who graduated from college only recently, departed from the agreed script to demand that the chief minister came and received their memorandum, Anandiben Patel went into an emergency huddle along with some of her cabinet colleagues. She hardened her position and made it known that this would not happen.
By nightfall, the majority of the crowd at the venue had dispersed, leaving Hardik Patel and four other leaders who had joined him in the past. The police then began lathi-charge the crowds to disperse them. Patel was allowed to go shortly after he was taken into custody.
Darshan Desai is the writer is Editor, Development News Network and Director, Centre for Media Research Training and Advocacy.
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The homes of three ministers belonging to the Patel community were also attacked.
Patel was taken into custody at the GMDC grounds in western Ahmedabad, where he had called a rally to press for the community's demands. He insisted that the agitation would continue until Chief Minister Anandiben Patel personally came to the venue to receive a memorandum of demands framed by the Patidar Anamat (Reservation) Andolan Samiti and not the District Collector.
The agitation threatens to trigger off a caste war in the state. The Gujarat government has set up a seven-member ministerial committee led by senior minister Nitin Patel to hear the grievances of the Patels but has not yet bowed them. Members of OBC communities as well as of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are gearing up to counter any move to include the Patels in the reserved category as this would stretch the quota for seats in educational establishments and government jobs even thinner.
They maintain that the Kadva Patels and the Leuva Patels are rich landowners who do not need these reservations.
At the rally earlier in the day, Hardik Patel warned that the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has ruled Gujarat for two decades, could lose its grip on the state if it ignored the Patidars. “Only if our demands are met will the lotus bloom in the 2017 assembly elections in Gujarat or else never again," he said.
Choosing to speak in Hindi, he said, “We may be 1.8 crore in Gujarat, but nationally we are 27 crore. Chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar is from our community and so is Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu. In all, we have 117 Patidar members of parliament. This demonstrates our strength and reach”.
He said that the Gujjars of Rajasthan who had locked horns with their government over reservation benefits had extended support to the Patels. "We are prepared to go to Gandhinagar and to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi if our demands are not met," he threatened.
Significantly, the Anandiben Patel government, overawed by the agitation that has grown to a state-level movement, waived the road toll for all vehicles en route to the rally and did not charge the protestors the usual fee for using the GMDC ground. The district collector of Ahmedabad was directed to go to the venue to receive their charter of demands. When Hardik Patel, who graduated from college only recently, departed from the agreed script to demand that the chief minister came and received their memorandum, Anandiben Patel went into an emergency huddle along with some of her cabinet colleagues. She hardened her position and made it known that this would not happen.
By nightfall, the majority of the crowd at the venue had dispersed, leaving Hardik Patel and four other leaders who had joined him in the past. The police then began lathi-charge the crowds to disperse them. Patel was allowed to go shortly after he was taken into custody.
Darshan Desai is the writer is Editor, Development News Network and Director, Centre for Media Research Training and Advocacy.
