Central Gujarat’s Karamsad town where Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel grew up, will observe bandh on Friday, protesting against Jaswant Singh’s book for its “defamatory references” to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first home minister.

According to Ullasbhai Patel, President of Karamsad Kelavni Mandal, all the schools and colleges run by the Mandal will join the strike.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of India’s greatest leaders in the Indian Independence Movement grew up in Karamsad. Karamsad was also the home of his elder brother Vithalbhai Patel, who was also an important political leader. The Patel brothers lived with their two elder brothers, one younger brother, sister, and parents Jhaverbhai and Ladba Patel in a mud-brick house adjacent to his family’s farm holdings. This house is preserved to date as a memorial to Patel.

Couple of days ago, farmers in Southern Gujarat’s Bardoli town had rallied demanding ban on Jaswant Singh’s book, after which the state government imposed ban on the book in Gujarat. Bardoli is a place where Sardar Patel lead a Satyagraha in late 1920s.