Patidar leader Hardik Patel (AP Photo/File)
Patidar quota leader Hardik Patel on Tuesday criticised Congress for not raising the killing of 14 Patidar youths in police action during the community’s movement for reservation in the ongoing session of Gujarat Assembly. Hardik went to the extent of saying that it seems Congress is like BJP since they are not raising the issues of ‘inhuman atrocities committed on Patidars’.
In a Facebook post, Hardik wrote: “Chhella paanch divash thi Gujarat Vidhansabha nu satra chali rahyu chhe ane Dalit atmavilopan no muddo varamvaar uthhi rahyo chhe. Je ek sari babat chhe ane uthhvo pan joie. Pan chhella adhhi varsh thi chalta Patidar Anamat Andolan ke jema shaheed thayela 14 Patidar yuvano ane nirdosh par thayela khota rajdroh na keso no muddo kem koi Congress na dharasabhya nathhi uthhavata ane vipakshi neta Pareshbhai Dhanani kem chup chhe. (For the past five days, the Gujarat Assembly session is on and issue of Dalit activist’s self-immolation is being raised repeatedly, which is a good thing and it should be raised as well. However, why no Congress MLA is raising the issues of 14 Patidar youths who got martyred in the two-and-a-half-year-old Patidar stir, and false cases of sedition registered against innocent persons. Why is Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani silent?)”
“If the Congress wants to keep mum in the Assembly on inhuman atrocities committed on Patidar community then we think that there is no difference between BJP and Congress. When a young leader like Paresh Dhanani became the Leader of Opposition, we thought that it will benefit the common people. However, people’s hopes are shattering as their issues are not being raised (in the Assembly). Today, despite there being a strong Opposition, if people get disappointed then where will they go,” he added. In the run-up to the Assembly elections last year, Hardik had supported the Congress after he accepted the party’s formula of giving Patidar community constitutional reservation.
After that political camaraderie, this is for the first time that Hardik has spoken against the Congress. Neither Hardik nor Dhanani could be contacted. Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said that his party was committed to the issues of all the communities, including of Patidars. “Hardikbhai has made this statement as certain issues seem to have escaped his attention. Patan case (about a Dalit activist’s self-immolation) was a very serious and sensitive issue, and the Congress had raised it as a matter of immediate attention. The Congress is committed to the issues of all the communities, including Patidar. And we included the issue of Patidar reservation in our manifesto as well. Previously, the Congress had moved a (private member’s) Bill in the assembly seeking 20 per cent reservation (for unreserved communities),” Doshi said.
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