Ahmedabad, Sept. 23 (The Telegraph): The ongoing Patel agitation has prompted the Gujarat government to prepare, for a start, a financial package for economically backward upper-caste students who are otherwise not entitled to any reservation benefits.
A special scheme for deserving general-category students, likely to be announced tomorrow, may include scholarships, free coaching and relaxation in age limits and in the number of attempts for government jobs.
But P.C. Patel, a senior member of the Sadar Patel Group (SPG), made it clear that the package was not acceptable to them. "We have not asked for it. So we are going to reject it. We want reservation. Nothing else will satisfy us," he said.
Hardik Patel, who has become the face of the Patel agitation after he launched the Patel Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), had initially been groomed by the SPG when he joined it four years ago as a life member.
Mansukh Mandavia, a BJP MP and general secretary and himself a Patel, said the scheme had been prepared keeping in mind the "difficulties faced by general-category students".
"We have worked out a scheme that will help them in competitive exams and higher education, which has really become very expensive. Now there will be no complaints from economically backward classes in the open category," he claimed.
All groups - including Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Banias and religious organisations representing the Patel community - have been invited for tomorrow's event where the scheme will be announced.
Several groups, including pro-government religious sects, have also been invited, though they had never supported the agitation for reservation.
But no SPG or PAAS leader will be present.
This morning, when P.C. Patel called up a minister, he was specifically told "you are not invited", the SPG leader said.
Asked why Hardik has not been invited, Mandavia said: "Why should we invite him? He is not the sole champion of the Patel community."
The government's cold-shoulder seems to have toughened the resolve of the pro-reservation groups. "We will continue to fight," said Varun Patel, a spokesman for the SPG.
P.C. Patel said the pro-reservation groups were now preparing for a ballot "battle", as that was perhaps the only way their demands could be met.
"We are in the process of floating a political party. We will field our own candidates in local (body elections) and in Assembly elections. Only those who support reservation will get elected," he warned.
The agenda of the new party, to be announced soon, will be to scrap caste-based reservation and replace it with economic criteria.
If the Patels do float a new outfit, it would be bad news for the ruling party because the community has backed the BJP in the state for the past 20 years.
Satish Patel, a working committee member of the BJP Yuva Morcha, has already formed an Ekta Manch for upper castes to campaign for reservation for economically backward sections.
"Any deserving candidate who is poor and economically backward deserves reservation," Satish, a member of the Gujarat University syndicate, said.
The PAAS and the SPG have both welcomed Satish's initiative.
