Today, for the first time, I am sad to welcome you to our incredible India. The country, where a 22-year-old uneducated man has the power to change the life of 80 lakh people for almost 3 days and the government does nothing.
Yes, I am talking about the incident that took place in Ahmedabad two days ago. The Patidar Rally was organized by the Patel leader, Hardik Patel, with the permission of a non-violence rally on the 25th of August 2015. The rally was expecting a crowd of 25 lakh Patidars and the venue was GMDC Ground in Ahmedabad.
Patel community of Gujarat organized the rally as they were seeking caste reservation. Their demand was to get the reservation for their community or demolish the whole caste system for everyone other than the OBC.
Therefore on Tuesday, Ahmedabad woke up listening to ‘Jai Sardar, Jai Patidar’ slogans in the morning as around 20 lakhs of Patidars started pouring in from all corners of the state to the GMDC ground.
The rally took place but turned violent as the protesters broke the shops that were open and also the vehicles parked on the roadside. They even blocked the Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway and other few important roads. Later, Hardik Patel announced a hunger strike where he wanted the government to agree to his terms in the next 48hours. All the drama continued till the late evening when around 8 pm Hardik Patel and 5 others were detained by the crime branch from the venue of the rally. And soon, police conducted lathi-charge the people on the ground. The people then cleared the ground and the crowd of almost 5 lakh people divided in the group and burned down the state transport buses, local buses, other vehicles on the road, threw pebbles on the home minister’s place, random people’s homes and created a riot situation.
Soon, the situation prolonged from Ahmedabad to other cities like Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara and small districts like Mehsana. The whole state was called off for a day, mobile data services were shut down throughout the state and curfew was declared in majority areas. The situation was sensitive till Wednesday evening. The paramilitary forces were called to handle the situation in cities like Ahmedabad and Surat.
So what exactly is the point?
Well, the point is that a 22-year-old uneducated ‘guy’ has the power to burn and shut down the city, and all the government did was requested everyone to maintain peace. This guy actually made the crowd of so many cities stay standstill for days. Tonnes of many mango people suffered due to this guy and the government technically did nothing.
The police were blamed for the lathi-charge on people. But do you really think they were wrong? Well, at least I don’t. If a person like Hardik Patel can do whatever he wants, I think the government too can, because actually it is the government that has the power.
Maybe people were right when they said that the CM of Gujarat Mrs. Anandiben Patel will not be able to control the power. Maybe they were right when they felt that Gujarat was given in the wrong hands. Maybe they were right when they believed that only Modi could handle such situations.
Maybe I think that India needs a dictator when a situation like this arises. Maybe democracy is a drawback for the country now. Especially, when lakhs of people blindly follow a person like Hardik Patel and does all this. Maybe it’s time to take some action. Maybe it’s time for some change.
