Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel will be meeting Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel along with 145 members of his committee on Monday. He has demanded that the government suspend the 4200 police officers who, he alleges, roughed up Patel agitators during a rally in Ahemdabad in August.
He had on Sunday postponed his ‘reverse Dandi March’ to September 15, claiming that he has been invited by a Cabinet minister for a meeting with the state Chief Minister on the issue.
Earlier too, on September 5, he had postponed his reverse Dandi March – from Dandi village in Navsari district to Ahmedabad – till Sunday.
“The ‘Reverse Dandi Yatra’, which was supposed to be held on Sunday, has now been postponed after senior Cabinet Minister Saurabh Patel invited us for a meeting with the Chief Minister,” said the 22-year-old Patel community leader who heads the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS).
“With the approval of the Chief Minister, he (Saurabh Patel) assured us to fix a meeting with her, and our issues will be resolved by then. If they do not bring out a solution to our issues, then they will give us a legal nod to take out our march,” he said.
“The police atrocities during violence for quota demand is the main issue now. The state government must discuss and take stern action in cases of police atrocities and a decision should be taken during that meeting (with CM) only, he said.
“We will give priority to the issue of police atrocities and the issue of reservation has now become secondary. Whoever police personnel had murdered our people and misbehaved with our women must be immediately suspended,” he demanded. We will demand suspension of all the 4,200 police personnel including constables, police inspectors or other officials who had beaten our people at GMDC ground on August 25,” he said.
“They must tell us who was the General Dyer, who had given orders to resort to baton charge on our people, whether he was from Gujarat or some person sitting in Delhi,” he added.
Hardik also demanded the release of all the Patel community youths put behind bars in the cases of violence, while claiming that, “they all were innocent”. The state government should first clarify its stand on these issues in the meeting, then we will talk on the reservation issue, he said.
When asked if he wants to seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention on the issue, he said, “Modi is not the Prime Minister of Pakistan. He is the Prime Minister of India and as Gujarat is part of India, he should intervene.”
On whether his outfit PAAS has been assured that the state government will not play any politics further, he said, “As Chief Minister Anandiben has herself invited us, we thought of giving a chance to our elders. We will meet them with love.”
Hardik said the Gujarat police and the government’s action was worse than the British Rule in India, adding, “the British police and that government had not beaten the women and innocent people by intruding in their houses. In (Mahatma) Gandhi’s Gujarat, innocent people were beaten, we want to bring back Gandhi in Gujarat,” he said.
The state administration had on Saturday denied permission to Hardik to take out the march from Dandi village in Navsari district to Ahmedabad, but the leader was adamant to go ahead with it.
However, Hardik had then given an ultimatum of a week to the state government either to give them permission to hold the march or his community members will take out the march even if they were not given nod.
