Gujarat’s irate Patels

 In Gujarat, a 21-year-old is pulling in larger crowds than Prime Minister Narendra Modi ever did, courtesy an agitation demanding reservations for the politically influential Patel community. Gujarat cannot make any changes in the structure of reservations because of the Supreme Court's limit of 50 per cent. The most it can offer is a special scheme under which the state would bear the educational expenses of general category students. The counter has been immediate. Gujarat backward caste leaders have been as bellicose as the youth leader Hardik Patel, photographed with an upturned, outdated rifle to symbolise the movement's latent militancy. The Patel agitation seems to be completely upturning the two-fold logic of affirmative action because the community is neither socially nor economically backward. 

The same phenomenon was seen among the Jats who, like the Patels, dominate the social-political hierarchy in parts of five states and yet seek reservations. The reason is the souring of the liberalisation dream due to income inequality. The Patels own over half the motels in the US and comprise one-third of the substantial BJP legislative strength in the Gujarat Assembly. But this wealth and power is concentrated among a few clans as is the case with the Jats. Ordinary Patels responded to the Vibrant Gujarat message by investing their farm surplus in medium and small industries. A quarter of them in Gujarat are sick. While finished diamond exports spurt, tens of thousands of polishers in Surat have been laid off. 

The skills of both the state and Central governments will be tested to the limits. But the Jat and now the Patel agitation should subsequently lead to a re-examination of the merits and demerits of the purely caste-based reservation system. Once influential backwards had muzzled the debate on weeding out the creamy layer, there has been no effort to evolve new methods and yardsticks to discover emerging forms of backwardness. Having overpromised in the run-up to the elections, the Modi government now runs the gauntlet of meeting the aroused aspirations of youth from all sections.