Outfit in the name of Thakor community wants to block highway tomorrow

Ahmedabad

Caste group ‘Kshatriya Thakor Sena’ led by Alpesh Thakor has declared blockade of Ahmedabad-Abu road national highway between Kalol and Amirgadh in north Gujarat to protest alleged attack on Thakor sena cadre by bootleggers near Sidhpur town of north Gujarat during so called ‘public raid’ on illegally operating liquor den. The caste outfit has raised question against the police inspector of Sidhpur and police sub inspector of Kakoshi in this issue. Agendas of this particular outfit that came into limelight last year seem dubious. Sparking off caste-wars or attempts to position particular caste groups against the police and thereby against the government could be wider goals before the general elections of assembly scheduled to be held in December next year. Who wants to benefit from attempting divisions in Hindu votes by playing caste cards is crystal clear. Today for one reason or tomorrow for another reason, disturbing peace, law and order appears the main agenda to achieve wider goals explained above. Thakor had last week held a press conference with set of caste groups seeking construction of statue of Dr Ambedkar taller than proposed Sardar Patel statue.

On tomorrow’s highway blockade which has potential to cause difficulty to common citizens and also potential to position one caste group against the police and thereby against the government, Alpesh Thakor says: Our boys conducted public raid on liquor den which is operated by a notorious bootlegger. Our boy was attacked during the ‘public raid’ with swords. He had 12 stitches following this injury. Sidhpur Police Inspector and Kakoshi Police Sub Inspector must face action for this as the bootlegger in question was booked just under rioting offense and not attempt of murder. When we contacted the police writer Divanbhai, he instead of giving us assurance spoke to us in rough language. We have managed to make 3,000 villages liquor-free. Thousands of our youths will block the highway tomorrow in protest.

Thakor’s outfit emerged along with the Hardik Patel led Patidar outfit just before the civic/panchayat elections last year and may continue to do something or other probably to impact the assembly elections scheduled to take place next year. While Hardik’s outfit tried to achieve Patel caste support through the issue of reservation, Thakor’s outfit has attempted to garner support of SC/ST/OBC community by coining various agendas like protection of existing reservation quota, fight against liquor menace, Ambedkar’s taller statue compared to Sardar Patel’s under construction statue etc.

– DeshGujarat