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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Hardik Patel: Gujarat’s 22-year-old quota warrior
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Hardik Patel: Gujarat’s 22-year-old quota warrior

Commerce graduate emerges as the poster boy of a campaign that's giving sleepless nights to mainstream politicians

Hardik Patel, convenor of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, with supporters near a statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel during the Patidar community’s Kranti Rally in Ahmedabad. Photo: AFPPremium
Hardik Patel, convenor of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, with supporters near a statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel during the Patidar community’s Kranti Rally in Ahmedabad. Photo: AFP

Ahmedabad: Hardik Patel wouldn’t even qualify to be a state legislator or a member of Parliament. The reason: he is just 22 years old, and the minimum age to fight an election to a state assembly or the Lok Sabha is 25 years.

Yet the commerce graduate, a nonentity until two months ago, has emerged as the poster boy of a campaign that’s giving sleepless nights to mainstream politicians in Gujarat, especially those from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and captured the popular imagination in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.

Two months ago, he launched a group called Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) that has quickly moved to the forefront of an agitation by Gujarat’s Patel community for the status of an other backward class (OBC), which would entitle it to quotas in university admission and government jobs.

Violent protests erupted in many parts of Gujarat on Tuesday after Hardik Patel addressed a rally in Ahmedabad where half a million people gathered to hear him speak. If there are no quotas for the Patels, the BJP should prepare itself to be voted out of power in Gujarat when elections take place in 2017, he said.

“If there is no quota for us, we will not allow the lotus to bloom," he said, referring to the party’s election symbol.

The violence in Gujarat was taken seriously enough by the prime minister to step in with broadcasts on television in Hindi and Gujarati on Wednesday, calling for calm in the state.

Hardik Patel, who has won the sobriquet “quota warrior" for his espousal of the Patel community’s cause, spoke on other subjects as well in his hour-long Hindi speech on Tuesday—from farmers’ suicides to lack of education and increasing joblessness.

The Patels, or Patidars, have been a solid bulwark behind the BJP, which has been in power in Gujarat without a break since 1998. They constitute about 14% of Gujarat’s population. Primarily a farming community, they have a significant presence in sectors such as dairy farming, textiles, real estate and diamonds. Patels also run most of the motels in the US.

Chief minister Anandiben Patel herself belongs to the community, as do the state BJP unit chief, six members of Parliament and about 40 state legislators.

So what went wrong for the BJP’s strongest vote base to rise up in arms? “There has been simmering unrest in society for various reasons—be it unemployment or education," explains political expert Ghanshyam Shah, a retired professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. “Hardik Patel has been able to unite these voices in his community to fight for a common cause."

The education level has grown among Patels in recent years, but even after scoring high marks in their examinations, Patel candidates aren’t able to find employment with the government because 50% of the jobs are already covered by quotas, says Hardik Patel.

A person who knows him said both the BJP and Congress hadn’t been able to read the growing unrest in the community. To give expression to their unrest, they needed a leader, and in Hardik Patel, they found one.

“Hardik is very ambitious. He took this opportunity and see how it has changed his life today. Some of his supporters call him Hardik Kejriwal, while some call him the new Modi," the person said on condition of anonymity. Kejriwal is a reference to Arvind Kejriwal, who successfully parlayed an anti-corruption campaign to attain political power in the national capital.

Hardik Patel invoked names of freedom fighters such as Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Chadrashekhar Azad in his speech on Tuesday to an audience donning white caps with “Hun Patidar Chu" (I am a Patidar) written on them.

Photographs of him with Vishwa Hindu Parishad strongman Pravin Togadia and Aam Admi Party (AAP) chief Kejriwal, whom he supported in the 2014 general election on Twitter, have been doing the rounds on social media.

“Some say I am backed by Congress; others say I am backed by BJP. Those backing both these parties say I am from AAP. Let me clarify that I am not from any party. I am a Patidar and a Patidar cannot be ruled by anyone," Hardik Patel said in his speech.

Such was the impact of his brief arrest and lathicharge by the police late on Tuesday evening that it led to violence across Gujarat in which more than 100 buses were torched and policemen attacked.

A graduate from Sahajanand College in Ahmedabad, Hardik Patel comes from a middle-class farming family.

He was a member of the Sardar Patel Group (SPG), a leading Patidar youth group, and was president of its Viramgam unit. He was ousted from SPG after he fell out with another leader, Lalji Patel.

His Patidar outfit PAAS has already signed up 1.4 million members and held about 80 rallies so far across Gujarat to espouse its cause of quotas for Patels.

A video shows him brandishing a gun, but Hardik Patel insists the pictures and the provocative commentary are only for dramatic effect.

He indicated in his speech on Tuesday that he would take the agitation from Gujarat to Delhi’s Jantar Mantar—the ancient observatory that is also a popular protest venue in the national capital—to press the Patel community’s demand if he needs to do so.

That could only increase the discomfiture of the central government, which is led by a man who was chief minister of Gujarat for a record 13 years.

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Published: 27 Aug 2015, 12:17 AM IST
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