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Protest puzzle for Congress

Published On : 28 Aug 2015


New Delhi, Aug. 27 (The Telegraph): The Congress, having been declared "almost dead" in Gujarat by the BJP, is bewildered at accusations of a hand in the Patels' quota agitation and wonders if it has the clout and resources to mobilise lakhs on Narendra Modi's turf.

Although Congress leaders aren't publicly talking about the Patel eruption, many privately believe there is more to it than meets the eye and say it will be naive to assume there are no organised forces backing agitation spearhead Hardik Patel.

The leaders, though, laugh away suggestions the Congress could be that force and say Modi should have had reasons to worry if "we could gather in Ahmedabad lakhs of Patels who have traditionally been BJP supporters".


The leaders also dismiss the possibility of a spontaneous outpouring. The official response has been restricted to criticising the BJP governments - both at the Centre and state - over the turmoil, but without attempts to analyse the origin and nature of the problem.

Rahul Gandhi, speaking in Srinagar, today used his old rhetoric and argued the violence was the "outcome of the politics of anger" Modi pursued.

The Congress vice-president said: "Our Prime Minister is practising the politics of anger and such politics has repercussions for the country, which you are seeing in Gujarat.... They want people to fight with each other and spread anger. We know this truth. We believe anger does not benefit anybody except Modiji. It does not benefit the country, farmers, poor and businessmen and we have seen this in Kashmir."

In Delhi, the party's communications chief, Randeep Surjewala, said "the Anandiben Patel government had pushed Bapu's Gujarat in a fire of mindless violence, arson and lawlessness.

"Four big cities - Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Mehsana - are under curfew. Over 100 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in a dozen towns and the army has been called in four towns. Over a thousand people are injured and hundreds have been arrested. Police not only brutally lathicharged without any provocation but also fired on innocent people."

Surjewala sprung six questions - why unarmed people were attacked, who gave police orders to fire and why dialogue had been started so far with the protesters - at the government but none aimed at unravelling the deeper political reasons behind the flare-up.

The approach suggests the Congress is reluctant to publicly deal with the more complex questions, such as who is instigating Hardik, whether the Patels' demand for reservations is justified and whether such collective pressure was good for democracy.A section of Congress leaders seemed gleeful, convinced the eruption would eventually hurt the BJP as such movements could not be tailor-made and often went out of hand.

Others suspected the BJP's internal factors. "Have the internal conflicts within the Sangh Parivar begun to play out? Is this agitation designed to achieve something specific, unrelated to the Patel reservation, and are some unsuspected forces pulling the strings?" one leader asked.

What stands out is the belief in the Congress that such mobilisation cannot be achieved in Gujarat even today against wishes of the Sangh Parivar or Modi himself.

One leader said: "We have heard the initial mobilisation was done by the Sardar Patel group, which has BJP links. Hardik's family is closely associated with the BJP. Hardik was close to both Keshubhai Patel and Praveen Togadia. There are obviously, too, many unanswered questions." Keshubhai and Togadia have long been Modi's rivals.

In the Gujarat Assembly today, the Congress disrupted the proceedings and its leaders later met the governor and submitted a memorandum on the unrest.

The aim of the leaders appeared to be corner the state government and expose the "Gujarat model of governance" - presented to the nation as an ideal by Modi - instead of getting bogged down in questions like why and how a 22-year-old like Hardik has shaken the state the way he has.


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