A huge convention of the Kshatriya community was held on Sunday amid relentless protests against Union Minister Parshottam Rupala over his recent contentious remarks. As hundreds gathered at Ahmedabad's Dhandhuka, the demand for the withdrawal of his Lok Sabha candidature from Rajkot was yet again reiterated. The community has also planned a similar gathering in Rajkot on April 10 in support of their demand. The BJP leader has drawn ire of the community members over his comments at a March 22 event held by the Dalit community. Foreign rulers, including the British, spared nothing while persecuting and eventually, kings bowed down and “broke bread with them and married their daughters”, the BJP leader had said at the event. The comments triggered statewide protests as a large number of rulers in the colonial era were said to be from the Kshatriya community. Even as Rupala apologised several times, the community leaders warned of bigger protests across the nation unless their demands were heeded. On Sunday, several community leaders addressed the gathering including Mahipal Singh Makrana, Sher Singh Rana, Karansinh Chavda, Padminiba Vala, Virbhadrasinh Jadeja, Yuvrajsinh Jadeja, P T Jadeja, Vasudevsinh Gohil and Harpalsinh Chudasama. Yuvrajsinh proposed to lodge a criminal complaint against Rupala for defaming the community across the state. Rupala already faces a defamation case after Congress leader Adityasinh Gohil last month filed a defamation complaint in a magisterial court in Rajkot. He said, “When leaders of 92 organisations are present, I want to make a suggestion that we have submitted representations at every district level. Now, we should lodge FIR at every taluka level police station in the state against Parshottam Rupala. All of us can lodge a defamation case because he has insulted (our) women.” Vasudevsinh Gohil reminded some of the unfulfilled demands of the community like conferring Bharat Ratna on Krishna Kumar Sinh, the erstwhile ruler of Bhavnagar. Sher Singh Rana called upon the community to be a political force like Yadavs, Marathas, Jats, and Dalits in other parts of the country if they wanted their demands to be met. He indicated that without becoming a political force, the Kshatriyas cannot get their demands fulfilled by those who are in power. “(Currently) what can you do if the BJP refuses to cancel Rupala's ticket?.Youwill have to be a political force like our Maratha brothers, Yadav brothers, Jat brothers and Dalit brothers.The day you learnt to speak the dialogue 'we will withdraw the support and make your government fall', nobody will dare not to accept your demand,” Rana said. Meanwhile, tensions escalated on Saturday in several parts of the state over the controversy, In Ahmedabad, as five Kshatriya women threatened to perform "jauhar" (self-immolation) at the BJP headquarter Kamalam, in Gandhinagar, the police detained the national convenor of the Karni Sena, Mahipal Singh Makrana, when he set out to meet the women.
