Jat stir has its effect in Gujarat

Manas Dasgupta

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The reverberations of the reservation agitation by the Jats in the BJP-ruled Haryana and earlier in Rajasthan are being felt in faraway Gujarat, that is facing a similar quota stir by the Patels. All efforts by the Anandiben Patel government to arrive at a negotiated settlement with the influential “Patidars” on the reservation issue, without antagonising the sizeable Other Backward Classes supported by the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, have been unproductive, for now.

The quota stir by the Jats and the favourable stand taken by the BJP governments in these two states on the issue has come as a shot in the arm for the “Patidars” in Gujarat to reinvigorate their eight-month-old stir, plugged by the arrest of their young leaders facing serious charges like sedition and destruction of public property. After months of quietness, a number of senior BJP Patidar leaders, including some MPs and MLAs, have come out openly in favour of the demand for reservation. “If Jats can be assured reservation in Haryana and Rajasthan, why not the Patels in Gujarat?” asked party MP from Porbandar Vithhal Radariya (Patel), who along with the MLA from Surat, Kumar Kanani, and several others surprised all by declaring open support to the reservation stir by the Patels.

Caught between the devil and the deep sea, the Anandiben Patel government was trying to douse the quota flame by diverting the attention from the demand for reservation to the release of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leaders, rotting in jails for the last four months. This was evident as the 24-member committee appointed by the government under Patidar religious leader Jeram Patel put the release of PAAS convener Hardik Patel and his co-accused in sedition charges as the first condition before any progress could be made. The government was worried because the sizeable OBC, the SCs and STs, who together hold over 70 per cent of the votes in the state, had forewarned the BJP that conceding the demand of the Patidars for reservation would automatically mean loss of the backward class votes.

The BJP had tasted the Patidar ire in the local body elections in December when it saw an upsurge of the Congress in rural Gujarat for the first time in two decades. An alarmed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national BJP president Amit Shah sent an SOS to Anandiben to take immediate steps for the uphill task of mending relations with the Patels, but without alienating the backward classes. The sops for the Patidars announced by the government before the local elections had failed to break the impasse.

Just when the administration was on the verge of bringing most of the PAAS leaders under one umbrella, the Jats in Haryana encouraged Hardik and his supporters to deliver a lethal blow to the efforts by launching an indefinite fast in jail. 

New BJP president

After a prolonged delay because of the Patel quota stir, the state BJP has got a new president in Transport Minister Vijay Rupani. The long overdue election was held up as the party was looking for someone to strike a balance between the agitating Patels and their main adversary, the backward classes. Finally the choice fell on Rupani, a Jain Vania from Rajkot, who does not belong to either camp.

But the task is well cut out for the 60-year old Rupani, a former student wing activist of the RSS, who had held the post of the state party secretary and official spokesman for years before he was inducted in the cabinet last year.

A close confidant of both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, Rupani’s main task would be to bring back to the party fold the influential Patel community. He would have to perform the balancing act between the Patels and the OBCs as desertion of either might mean disaster for the BJP in the 2017 Assembly polls.