Modi Outfoxes The Patels - Hardik And Naresh !

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 BY R.K.MISRA

The young may know the rules but the experienced know the exceptions.

More so Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who changes the rules to suit his governance and the exceptions to guide his politics. So you have Hardik Patel in a queue and Naresh Patel on cue.

Hardik Patel  is the Gujarat  quota stir rebel- now without a cause- who awaits a new home . Naresh Patel is the philanthropist whose - work without a pause- earned him encomiums and now needs a nest. Both stand poised at the poll-side crossroads awaiting the  greenlight. Hardik quit the Congress and is headed for the BJP . Naresh is Congress-bound but does not commit . And while  the two prevaricated, Prime Minister Narendra Modi moved  Saturday last to swipe them to size. The message was clear: Lilliputians have their limitations and it is Gulliver who rules the political globe.

Modi has few peers in strategising perception management with confidante C.R.Patil, his state party chief, to deliver the details. He allows rivals to ride ’rockstars’ and pulls the plug on them past the half-way mark, making them dust unto dust descend. A simple example.

K.D.Parvadiya, a multi-speciality hospital built by the Patel Sewa Samaj at Atkot  in Rajkot district of Saurashtra region would have been happy if they could manage the Chief Minister to inaugurate the facility. Alerted to the strategic opportunity of a region-domination exercise which could be converted into a show of Patidar strength for the BJP , they got the Prime Minister instead. A string of engagements for Home Minister Amit Shah at the other end in Dwarka, the same day, made the carpet ‘bombing’ of Saurashtra complete. The state goes to polls later this year.

The Congress had made impressive gains in Saurashtra in the 2017 elections bagging 28 of the total 48 seats, up 13 seats from 2012 with the BJP reduced to 19 , down 11. It  rejoiced for denting the Patidar vote-bank of the BJP and rewarded Hardik, the Patel quota crusader with a working vice-presidentship of the party in Gujarat. Hardik put in his papers recently in a bid to vend his way to the BJP, mouthed all the proper Sangh-endearing sermons but is still stuck a  limbo.

It was widely speculated that Naresh Patel who heads the Khodaldham Trust, a prestigious institution of the Leuva Patidar sect may join the Congress and may even be projected as a possible chief ministerial candidate. With Prashant Kishore, at one stage, strongly pitching for Naresh, a disillusioned Hardik began looking around for greener pastures but Naresh has remained commitment-phobic. Modi walked into the breach and  for the moment has made both redundant  with his show of strength.” Thirteen years in Gujarat  and eight years at the Centre, I have delivered blemishless. I promise you more and better”, he held aloft at the Atkot rally.

The BJP pulled out all stops and 1200 road transport corporation buses besides 350 school buses were mobilized to bring people for the event from all over Saurashtra,50,000 women  marked presence dressed in saffron sarees distributed free says a published report. The invitation for the event carried the name of the Khodhaldham Trust, among others though it was made known that Naresh Patel may not be attending. The organizer of the event Dr. Bharat Bodhra, a patel himself, is known to be close to state BJP chief Patil. Dilip Sanghani, IFFCO chairman who also belongs to the same community has already gone on record to state that the community does not vote at the behest of anyone leader, be it Naresh Patel or anyone else.

The  PM addressed rally  was not merely  a Patidar show for BJP strength, it was also meant to firmly put down the disquieting voices within the party. The replacement of Vijay Rupani and his entire cabinet last September had led to a lot of heart burn, particularly among the Congress defectors who had been accommodated in the cabinet and left out in the cold thereafter. The show was meant to rub home the Patil line that people vote Modi not you.

The Congress ardour for Naresh was also based on the need for safeguarding the 2017 gains after realization dawned in the party that Hardik was playing footsie with the BJP. If the Congress high command has directed it’s state unit  not to push  Naresh matters, the BJP too is playing it cool with Hardik.

According to sources within the BJP, the strategy was to wean away Hardik from the Congress so as to deny the opposition whatever this advantage meant rather than benefit the BJP. Sentiments run high within the BJP on his inclusion as a key section holds him responsible for his role in the ouster of the first women chief minister of Gujarat, also a Patidar, Anandiben Patel. Modi’s go-ahead may quieten things for the moment but this section believes that Hardik reneged on an understanding that had been arrived at with the then chief minister on 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Backward Classes(EBCs) and played into the hands of her detractors within.

Already the knives are out for him. A former Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti(PAAS),Bhavesh Sonani has, in a published report, charged Hardik with making money by selling Congress tickets  during the 2017 state Assembly elections. He also claimed that it was at his  instance that shoe had been hurled at union minister Mansukh Mandaviya at a meeting. Whatever may be the veracity of these claims but there is more in store for him as he gets caught in the crossfire of the ruling party’s internal strife.

These sources confirm that a key officer was used to make  the Patidar quota rebel see the reality of his present situation with two dozen or more FIRs against him including those for sedition with each having the capacity to end his political career, if the government chose to put it’s foot down in right earnest. It was thereafter that he agreed to move out and head towards the ruling party. A reciprocal softening of the BJP government’s stand is noticeable in that it has withdrawn one of the many cases but is in no hurry to speed up the process. In fact, it may slow it down to keep him under leash.

For now he has been inducted into the ruling party on May 2,2022 -one of the many who went in and got lost. From Menaka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi at one end of the spectrum to one time Gujarat deputy chief minister Narhari Amin and minister Kunvarji Bavaliya at the other.

 https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/modi-outfoxes-the-patels-hardik-and-naresh-1113959.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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