Keshubhai8217;s dilemma

The political crisis brewing in Gujarat has its origins in a phenomenon that is widespread in the country: the nexus between crime and pol...

The political crisis brewing in Gujarat has its origins in a phenomenon that is widespread in the country: the nexus between crime and politics. How Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel resolves the political tangle will therefore be of more than passing interest. The resignation of his minister of state for home, Haren Pandya, forces Patel to take sides between a law enforcer and a power broker when he would plainly prefer not to. He is being compelled to support either Pandya or Purshottam Solanki, deputy minister for labour and employment, when either choice spells trouble.

The two ministers are at daggers drawn over the handling of a criminal case. Solanki claims his brother, Bharat Solanki, has been charged falsely with attempted murder at the behest of the former home minister. Pandya says the police must be given a free hand and the law must take its course. For a week after the police arrested Bharat Solanki and two others for threatening and beating up a business rival, the chief minister dithered, proving he was reluctant to come out strongly in favour of legal processes. At the same time, he clearly cannot order a halt to the proceedings against Bharat Solanki.

Keshubhai Patel8217;s indecisiveness appears to have encouraged the minister of labour to try every trick in the book to divert attention from his brother8217;s alleged wrongdoing. His potential for mischief is clear from the attempt to blow up the issue into one of police persecution of the Koli community to which Solanki belongs and from whose members in Saurashtra he draws support.

At a hastily summoned gathering of Koli leaders in Gandhinagar this week all manner of charges were made against the police and further protests are planned. It might have been expected that this brazen attempt to whip up caste feelings would lose Solanki his post in government. That he was not sacked is not inexplicable. He is said to wield considerable political influence in Saurashtra, so much so that the BJP can forgive him almost anything and indeed has.

When he was admitted into the party in 1998, BJP leaders were only too ready to overlook his antecedents which include detention under TADA in Maharashtra, indictment by the Srikrishna commission of inquiry into the bloody communal riots in Mumbai in 1992-93, and alleged shady dealings in Mumbai real estate. Moreover, powerful people are beholden to him. It is widely known that the BJP state president, Rajendrasingh Rana, owes his Lok Sabha seat to Solanki.

No doubt about it, Patel8217;s dilemma is acute but it is of his own making. As things stand just now, he cannot afford to jettison Solanki. At the same time, the latter8217;s high profile defensive-offensive tactics are not making it easy for his political friends to bail his brother out of trouble. The forceful home minister has compounded the embarrassment by sending in his papers. Keshubhai Patel might need a little help from the BJP8217;s central leadership at this juncture.

They should advise him to let the law take its course and to make it clear to his ministerial colleagues that firm action will be taken against anyone who tries to interfere with the legal process.