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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Hardik Patel meets Gujarat CM, to hold reverse Dandi March on 19 September
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Hardik Patel meets Gujarat CM, to hold reverse Dandi March on 19 September

Patel demands that police officers who carried out atrocities against the Patel community be punished and people arrested for the violence be released

Hardik Patel also announced to take out on 19 September a reverse Dandi March, a throwback to Mahatma Gandhi’s iconic protest against the British a century ago, from Navsari to Ahmedabad. Photo: PTIPremium
Hardik Patel also announced to take out on 19 September a reverse Dandi March, a throwback to Mahatma Gandhi’s iconic protest against the British a century ago, from Navsari to Ahmedabad. Photo: PTI

Ahmedabad: The ire of the Patel community in Gujarat which has been protesting for reservation is still simmering.

On Monday evening, Hardik Patel, convenor of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) who is spearheading the agitation, met state chief minister Anandiben Patel at her residence in Gandhinagar with a set of demands.

The meeting was fixed for 4.30pm on Monday, but at the eleventh hour, 22-year-old Hardik said that he would be accompanied by another 144 Patel community members, putting the meeting on hold. After some confusion, the meeting took place around 6.30pm. Hardik and about 15 other members were allowed to attend the meeting along with some ministers and state government officials.

In the meeting, he sought action against police officers for using force against the during a rally at the sprawling Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) grounds on 25 August and release all arrested. The state government has sought 10 days’ time to consider his demands.

The 25 August rally attended by about five lakh people witnessed violent incidents when the police briefly detained Patel. Ten people from the community were killed in the incident and army and paramilitary forces had to be deployed to control the situation.

“In our meeting [with the chief minister] we have demanded that all police officials involved in the lathicharge at GMDC Ground be suspended and action be taken against all police officials who were posted at the police stations where as many as 10 people died. We have also demanded that the Patels arrested by the police during our agitation last month be released and that there should be no further arrests," said Hardik, after a three-hour meeting with the chief minister.

He also demanded that the state should bear the medical expense of all those who were injured in the two-day violence.

Hardik also announced that on 19 September PAAS will take out a reverse Dandi March, a throwback to Mahatma Gandhi’s iconic protest against the British a century ago, from Navsari to Ahmedabad. The march was to be held on 13 August but was put off in view of the meeting with the chief minister.

On the discussion of quota reservation for the Patel community, also known as Patidars, Hardik said that the matter on reservation will be raised once all these issues are resolved by the government. Gujarat government spokesperson and health minister Nitin Patel said that the meeting was a success and the government would look into the community’s demand.

On the community’s demand for Other Backward Class (OBC) status, Nitin said the state government had made it clear to Patel that they should follow due procedures if they wanted reservation. This would include approaching the appropriate commission that would determine the backwardness of a caste and find out whether they are educationally and economically deprived or not.

Earlier in the day, Hardik met former Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel, who left the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2012 to form a new outfit called Gujarat Parivartan Party ahead of the last assembly elections. He is credited with building the BJP’s Patel vote-bank in Gujarat. However, the newly-formed party managed to win only three out of the 182 assembly seats. Later, he ironed out differences with BJP leaders and re-joined the party. Last year, he announced retirement from politics.

Hardik floated PAAS about three months ago and the group has quickly moved to the forefront of an agitation by Gujarat’s Patel community for the status of OBC, which would entitle it to quotas in university admission and government jobs. The Patels constitute about 14% of Gujarat’s population. The community, primarily comprises of agriculturists, is also engaged in various sectors such as dairy farming, textiles and diamonds.

In the ruling BJP state government, the chief minister, seven other top ministers, the state party unit chief, six members of Parliament from Gujarat and about forty state legislators are from the Patel community.

In the 25 August rally, Hardik threatened that the BJP would lose next year’s elections in Gujarat if the Patels were not included in the OBC category. He demanded that either the government include the Patels among the OBCs or scrap the reservation system entirely.

The Patels have been a solid bulwark behind the BJP, which has been in power in Gujarat since 1998.

The chief minister said that as per the Constitution and judgements of Supreme Court, “the government cannot make any changes in the structure of reservations for SCs (Scheduled Castes), STs (Scheduled Tribes) and OBCs, nor can the government give reservation beyond 50%". Gujarat has already reached this prescribed limit.

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Published: 15 Sep 2015, 10:21 AM IST
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