Ahmedabad

Though his office attacked, Visnagar BJP MLA Rishikesh Patel has refused to file police complaint reportedly as per wish of party’s state leadership.

Patel’s office was attacked during Patidar Anamat Samiti’s rally in Visnagar town today.

A car parked outside Patel’s office owned by another BJP office bearer belonging to Thakor community was burnt to ashes during Patidar rally. Thakor has also not filed complaint.

However journalists who were attacked during coverage of attack on MLA’s office have filed police complaint, and police has started related procedures.

Meanwhile one of the office bearers of ‘Patidar Anamat Samiti’, an outfit that is agitating for reservation benefit to Patidars(Patels) through inclusion in Other Backward Class(OBC) category said, “our rally had permission to go to MLA’s office. However we terminated our rally at Mamlatdar office only after submitting memorandum there. We were expecting MLA to remain present there but he was not present at Mamlatdar office. Therefore we small group of leaders of Anamat Samiti decided to go to MLA’s office to submit a memorandum. However before we reached there, participants of our rally reached there. They could be angry for the reason that MLA was absent at Mamlatdar office. They therefore attacked MLA’s office. This is the anger among youths in our community. As TV journalists were recording the scenes of attack in their video camera, the mob attacked them and broke their cameras in order to not to get identified. The attack on reporters is regrettable and I have personally visited reporters who were attacked.”

He said this was just another rally, and all earlier rallies were peaceful.

He also said that taluka wise rallies of Patidar community are planned for awareness on reservation issue and next set of rallies will continue to be peaceful. If at all need arises to go to elected representatives to submit memorandum, only a small delegation would pay visit and not entire rally.

Suresh Vanol, a cameraman of TV9 Gujarati news channel who was reportedly attacked, and whose video camera was broken by mob said that anti-MLA group of local Patidars could be responsible for attack on his office. Vanol has taken police complaint route to get justice.

According to one observation the attack on BJP MLA’s office was pre-planned because women and children participating in rally were asked to leave and only gents had reached MLA’s office in order to ransack it. MLA himself was not present there.

When asked for reaction, MLA himself delivered guarded statement. He said the attack was condemnable, but didn’t talk much about his opinion on ongoing agitation demanding reservation for Patidar community.

Rishikesh Patel was just following party line actually. The BJP which enjoys huge support of Patidar community politically is playing safe on this issue.

Spokesperson minister Nitin Patel who himself is Patidar(Patel) elected from north Gujarat refused to give reaction on ongoing agitation seeking reservation for Patels.Party refused to depute its spokespersons to vernacular TV channel studios for discussion on this issue. Congress too is playing safe and has refused to either back or oppose Patidar agitation.

One more leader associated with Patidar Anamat Samiti who was also present in Visnagar rally today said, “this is right time for this agitation as local body elections are coming. We will get our right and get reservation before general elections of assembly scheduled to take place in year 2017. Till now political parties have only used Patidar community for votes. We are against reservation system, but we realise that opposing this system is meaningless because it’s abolishment doesn’t seem possible. And therefore we have chosen this path to demand our inclusion in Other Backward Class(OBC) category. After today’s violence, government has refused permission to hold our Vijapur rally. We hear that our Ahmedabad rally will also not get permission. But this will not impact us. We have so far held peaceful rallies, but we can go for Gujjar style agitation. We are apolitical but we can go against political party to get our right.”

Editor’s note:

Though BJP has publicly not reacted, it is hurt from inside because it majorly relies on Patidar community votes in elections in many pockets. The state government has reportedly directed intelligence bureau to check who are real people behind this agitation? This agitation is limited to some pockets of north Gujarat only or it has potential to spread to other parts of the state?

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) has always been against division among Hindus, and therefore it is believed that BJP organization and RSS cadre would also wish to cool down this agitation as soon as possible. Whether by agreeing to demands or by other efforts, that has to be seen.

At first glance it looks like this agitation is limited to just Kadva Patidar community which has its presence mainly in north Gujarat only. Those associated with this agitation are trying their best to take this agitation to Saurashtra and south Gujarat where Leuva Patidar have major presence.

The vocal and demonstrative approach of Patidars has not gone well with other communities. While those enjoying reservation quota fear that Patidars will snatch away their share, those who are out of the reservation regime think the agitators are behaving in self-centered manner. Those who received large portion of land during Dhebarbhai’s regime in Saurashtra, those who are champion of small and medium scale and even large industries, those dominating global diamond trade don’t deserve reservation only because of the fact that some portion of community is in weak economic condition. If weak economic condition is the benchmark then all poor people across all communities deserve reservation, why only Patidars? Then it is combination of social, economic, educational and representation related backwardness that avails reservation. Agitators claim their community has presence of 2 crore strong population in Gujarat, but there’s no official data to support this claim. Agitators claim that majority of people in their community are backward, but there’s no official survey/data/census to support this fact. Then noone would easily believe that Patidars are educationally backward, or they don’t enjoy share in power and jobs. Now suppose if reservation is given to this community just for political reasons, it will be definitely challenged in court by someone, probably from existing OBC chunk, and looking at the Supreme Court verdict in Jat community reservation case, it is pretty clear that court would cancel any such decision taken for Patidars too if it is found that reservation was given for political reasons and not on the basis of authentic figures. It is true that Patidars and others who are out of the reservation system are facing injustice in college admissions, jobs and promotions, but by seeking inclusion in reservation, section of Patidars forget that if they too get-in, they would cause injustice to those who will continue to remain outside the reservation system. There’s also sentiment that Patidars are enjoying money, power and even good pie of government contracts and favors in present regime, but they are not satisfied yet, and now seeking reservation!

Those elements who are against BJP and RSS for various reasons are happy with this Patidar agitation, as it creates division within Hindus and also sparks off disturbance and anti-establishment mood.

Possibilities can not be denied that those leading the agitation may have some personal ambitions and selfish political motives. The present political leadership at district and state govt level from this particular community is quite static, and only successful agitation can be a shortcut for some new people from this community to enter the politics. There’s hunger for government jobs and education in north Gujarat. You find dozens of coaching classes for preparedness of recruitment exams. Other sections in north Gujarat mainly belonging to schedule castes, tribal, Chaudhary, Thakor etc communities enjoy reservation benefits and get admissions and jobs in priority. They also get benefits of priority promotion and age relaxation. In such situation, the anti-reservation mood is very obvious among rest of the communities, mainly Patidars who can afford to raise voice and do agitation as they are well networked through community driven educational, religious and other institutions. The sentiment against horrible and unjust reservation system has been for all practical reasons safely converted to pro-reservation mood to demand ‘me-too’ style inclusion. This feeling became stronger after well-to-do Jain community ensured minority status and related benefits from then Congress-led UPA government in centre.

If at all agitators think the government will succumb to their demand they need to understand that if challenged, the final decision on whether to award reservation to them will be taken by the Court(Jat reservation case indicates this). And court will seek figures, surveys, caste based census report, may be NCBC’s opinion. The present claims by Patidars are on the basis of their own estimates, and there are no documents to support such claim. Agitators can at least wait for the caste based census report of year 2011. If such report proves that Patidars are as backward as other communities in OBC list, then give reservation to them. And why only them? Give reservation to all other communities that are suitable, even Brahmin if they fall in that criteria! If caste census or other authentic survey suggest that the claims made by Patidars on their backwardness are absurd and baseless, then don’t include them in OBC list. If you read the Jat reservation verdict delivered by the Supreme Court, you easily can grasp that the ongoing agitation will not achieve reservation in the end, but will achieve only division, disturbance and degradation. But this is on legal side.

On political side, the number of people from Patidar community that have joined the town-wise rallies so far has been big and impressive, and noone can ignore them or their sentiments, but then the government has to do what is right, and not just what is good. Or then there are courts.

Attachment: Criteria for inclusion in OBC category (have agitators studied these criteria? Do they have authentic figures/documents/survey report/census report to fit-in these criteria? Forget government that they think would be pressurized through agitations, how they would convince courts eventually if they don’t have authentic support documents to prove their claim?)

Who Deserves Reservations? Supreme Court’s Big Verdict(By Shashi Tharoor)

Supreme Court rejects Centre’s review against scrapping quota for Jats

– DeshGujarat