Gujarat: Patel agitation and Dalit unrest threaten to sink the BJP

by Guest Thu Jul 28, 2016 1:58 am

Gujarat without Modi has entered a new time zone. After the agitation, led by Hardik Patel, the Patel community boycotted BJP’s Patel leaders. Ministers like Nitin Patel and Saurabh Patel were not allowed to hold public rallies, they were barred from many Patel-dominated areas and humiliated publicly. Junior home minister Rajni Patel’s residence in Mehsana was burnt down twice by members of the Patidar community. Even Purshottam Rupala — otherwise an impressive orator — who has joined the Union cabinet recently, was not spared. Chief Minister Anandiben Patel could not move around without facing stiff protests in the Patel-dominated villages.

Similarly, the Dalit rally in Ahmedabad last week gheraoed homes of Dalit MP Kirit Solanki and Rajnikant Patel, MLA of Asarva area. BJP holds 10 of the 13 seats reserved for SCs in Gujarat but none of these representatives are defending the Patel government...

It is apparent that the glue of hardened Hindutva has started coming off within two years of Narendra Modi’s exit as chief minister. There was a time when Modi was applauded for talking about “Miyan Musharraf” but today Gujaratis are heard talking about “ISI men being courted by India in Pathankot”. Modi’s presence in Gandhinagar was once so heavy that even the state Congress president would not talk to journalists without checking to ensure that “nobody is listening”. At a paan stall in Baroda or at the bus stand in Rajkot, it was impossible to question Modi’s decisions. But on July 23, Dalits came out in big numbers shouting slogans against Modi at his hometown Vadnagar. Modi being jeered at a public rally, and that not being countered, is a sign of change.

If the five-lakh strong mahakranti rally of Patels on August 24 last year was a wake-up call for the Gujarat BJP in the post-Modi era, the current Dalit assertion is the people’s way of demanding action from the jaded party in Gujarat. That the situation is far from normal is clear by the silence of PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. It seems they want to let the CM face the music alone and keep the issue Gujarat-centric...

Elections in Gujarat are due in winter next year but Patels, Dalits and Muslims — 32 per cent of the state’s population — are visibly displeased with the BJP. Last week, many Gujarati Muslim outfits supported Dalits in Patan, Kutch and Ahmedabad.

Modi became Gujarat CM in October 2001 but his attempts to bring together Gujarat’s different castes and communities under a saffron umbrella began in 1988 when he rose as a powerful organisational secretary of the party. The BJP has remained in power since 1995 because it maintained the delicate patchwork of castes and also raised Hindutva sentiments. Modi along with Amit Shah will now have to rely on remote control measures.

One wonders how political perceptions and realities of high cost of living, pervasive corruption and failing hopes of voters can be corrected or managed through remote controls or even with the tools Modi had at his disposal in 1995 or in 2002.

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/gujarat-dalit-thrashing-patidar-agitation-bjp-govt-patel-community-hardik-patel-una-incident-2939298/

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Gujarat: Patel agitation and Dalit unrest threaten to sink the BJP

Gujarat: Patel agitation and Dalit unrest threaten to sink the BJP