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Journalism of Courage
Patidar quota stir leader Hardik Patel on Friday targeted Narendra Modi, saying that it was “a matter of shame” that the Prime Minister, instead of the president of local district panchayat, had to inaugurate a yard of Amreli agriculture produce market committee (APMC) recently. Addressing Sankalp Sabha, organised by the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) on the APMC yard in Khambha taluka, Hardik said, “It’s a matter of shame that a prime minister had to come to inaugurate a marketing yard. By doing so, he demeaned president of local district panchayat. The president could have done the honours. So far, MLAs and a state minister used to inaugurate a yard. But here, it was done by the PM.”
He added that people used to chant “Dekho dekho kaun aaya, Gujarat ka sher aaya (look who is coming, the lion of Gujarat)” for Modi, but the BJP leader “turned out to be a cat”. The Prime Minister had visited Amreli on September 17 to inaugurate the new yard at Amreli APMC and lay the foundation stone of a bee-keeping farm and ice-cream plant of Amar dairy. Accusing Modi of not pursuing the Kalpasar project, he said, “Don’t forget Keshubhai Patel who took up the Kalpasar project. And don’t forget a bhai (Narendra Modi) who has put it on back-burner.”
Over the last few decades, scores of people have migrated to Surat from Saurashtra to work in diamond and textile industry. Saurashtra, a water-starved region is still chiefly agrarian and dominated by Patidars. The PAAS convenor also claimed Amreli accounted for the highest number of suicides by farmers, though he did not give any figure.
