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Journalism of Courage
Storming into a huge gathering at Mansa, in Gandhinagar district, Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel on Saturday evening took the attack to the ruling BJP, blaming the party of trying to weaken the Patidar agitation. Mansa is the hometown of BJP president Amit Shah.
On Saturday, Patel was first given permission to hold a meeting, and then denied it. The district authorities eventually allowed him to hold the meeting. Daring the ruling party, Hardik said, “You want to fight us (Patidar movement)? Then there are two ways: fight us legally, or if you want to do goondagardi, we are ready for that, too.”
“We need to write on our foreheads, hun Gujarati pan murkh chu (I am a Gujarati but I am a fool),” he said, mocking the BJP campaign slogan “hu chhu vikas hun chhu Gujarat (I am vikas, I am Gujarat)”. While the BJP Saturday announced that three more members of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) have joined the party, including Ketan Patel, who had turned approver in the case against Hardik, the PAAS convenor said, “What do you mean, saying PAAS members have joined the BJP? Bhai, is the election between the BJP and Congress, or between BJP and PAAS?”
While Hardik told the crowd that if the BJP wins “it will mean 6 crore people (of Gujarat) are defeated”, he did not once ask people to help, or vote for, the Congress. Once elected, he alleged, MLAs either get government plots in state capital Gandhinagar or sell themselves for crores against casting their votes.
Calling it a fight for “self-respect”, Hardik, referring to the recent video that surfaced online, purportedly showing him with a woman in a hotel room, said, “Gujarat’s people want to see CDs of vikas (development), not of a young boy.. Look at your (BJP) politics.at least organise your politics.. Anyway, I am thankful that all this happened to me at 23, so I don’t have to worry when I am 50.”
He was referring to the alleged sex CD on BJP leader Sanjay Joshi over a decade ago. “You and I are fools that we elected such leaders who were to show us vikas,” he said. Demanding education and jobs for the youth, Patel said, “Think, think, don’t be fooled. They (BJP) have been fooling us for nearly 25 years….”
Fellow PAAS leader Gopal Italiya said Patidars have to keep their cool in the face of provocation and instigation by the BJP until the elections are over. Stating that there is no need to be afraid of the BJP, he said, “We have come out to fight — we will die but will not be afraid of them.”
