Hardik Patel : The Millstone Around The BJP Neck
BY
R.K.MISRA
Caught
between a rock and a hard place, the Vijay Rupani led BJP government in Gujarat has ended up tying
itself in knots over the just concluded indefinite fast of patidar quota stir leader Hardik Patel.
The
protest fast which began on August 25,saw the youth leader enlarge his demands
to include farmer’s debt waiver and
emerge as a bridgehead for the national opposition, BJP rebels ,even
garnering support from NDA ally,Shiv Sena.
He gave
up his indefinite fast on the 19th day on September 12,2018 but not
before he brought divergent sects of his community on a common platform in a
show of unheralded unity. Present on the
occasion of his fast breaking were key leaders of the major sub-castes of patidars, not very
often seen on a common community platform.
As the reverberations from his stir spread out
in concentric circles countrywide, the BJP was at it’s wits end dealing with
the political fall-out of a 25 year old’s intransigence which has caught the
imagination of not only his own community and their youth but also of others countrywide.
The tension was palpable-both within the
government as well as his own caste formations-on September 7 when he was rushed
to hospital after he complained of breathlessness and reports of supportive
protest demonstrations poured in from various parts of the state, particularly
Saurashtra region which is the cradle of farmer unrest in Gujarat. A day
earlier, he had even given up drinking water. The government put together a
team of ten doctors to attend to a man
whom the very same government has charged with sedition !
Though a sense of bravado marked the official
reaction of the BJP government in the state, the ‘ posturing’ was in sharp
contrast to the hawk-like vigil that the state officialdom had been asked to
maintain. Gujarat minister Saurabh Patel
went on record to state that politics in the name of caste goupings(Samaj) must
end ,but chief minister Vjiay Rupani before he left for Delhi to attend his party’s national meet had already put in
place a three minister informal panel to deal with the situation. The three
ministers,Kaushik Patel, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and Pradipsinh Jadeja had
recently held a meeting with representatives of six patidar organizations. An
underlying thread of tension ran strong, both within the ruling political
establishment as well as without, over the fall-out of the indefinite fast.
Hardik all along remained defiant. He was
persuaded by JLD leader Sharad Yadav to start taking water. Said Hardik ”The
BJP government is ignoring the demands of the farmers and the patidars at it’s
own peril”.He knows best, because it was
the BJP’s foolhardiness that created Hardik. And, he will be the biggest
thorn in their side, countrywide, in the years to come !
There has
been a lot of hectic activity with community leaders mediating between the
Patidar Ananmat Andolan Samiti(PAAS) and the state government. Both the
community big-wigs and the government knew that there would be a major law and
order problem, if something happens to the youth leader. The ruling party is
learnt to have pressed panic buttons after it came to be known that Rahul
Gandhi may come calling on Hardik.
The
spearhead of agitational politics in Gujarat has been on the warpath since 2015
single-mindedly pursuing his goal of reservations for his community in
government jobs and educational institutions. He has now widened the ambit of
his protestations to demand debt waiver for farmers of Gujarat and release of
his aide, Alpesh Kathiriya who is behind bars on charges of sedition.
He
has been getting bountiful support of opposition leaders countrywide who
see a bridgehead for themselves and the joy of reveling in the discomforting
tremors in Modiland. He received a rakhi from West Bengal chief minister Mamta
Bannerji and vocal support from RJD, Praful Patel of the NCP, AAP chief
minister Arvind Kejriwal, former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, BJP MP and filmstar Shatrughan Sinha and
former Union minister Yashwant Sinha called on him to announce support, besides
A Raja of the DMK who alongwith Sharad Yadav also visited him.
The
Congress opposition has been extremely vocal in it’s support to the youth
leader and his causes. It has reason to be .Hardik was part of the youth trio
of dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and OBC
leader Alpesh Thakore who helped Rahul Gandhi dent the BJP bastion of Gujarat in the last
Gujarat Assembly elections. The patels ,a vote preserve of the BJP stood
divided and with the farmers pitching in against the ruling party as well, the
BJP barely managed to scrape through with 99 seats in the 182 member House in 2017.
With
Lok Sabha elections due next year, Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah occupies a place of strategic
importance for both defender BJP and an
aggressive Congress bolstered by a team of young leaders who have taken charge
of the state. Leader of the Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha ,Paresh Dhanani and
state party chief Amit Chavda are both in their forties. In 2014, BJP had
bagged all the 26 Lok Sabha seats. In 2019,the Congress is determined to breach
the bastion and is working to gain 12 to 14 seats.
It
is ironic that a party that rode to
power both in Gujarat and Delhi riding astride a crest of protests, is today
using ,means fair an foul, to stifle it.
Hardik remains a case in point of BJP’s blundering arrogance. the events
triggered by unleashing of berserk cops on the hapless public in the aftermath of Hardik’s August 25,2015
rally brought the party government
almost to the precipice in Gujarat last elections.
The
way his peaceful fast was sought to be railroaded through the use of the police,
by first denying him a venue and then
using cops to harass, lathi charge and forcibly prevent people from meeting him
is bound to boomerang on the BJP in the 2019
polls.
At 25 years of age, Hardik has all the time in
the world. How much time does BJP chief Amit Shah-who wants him out of the way-
actually have at the helm !!!
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