Ironically, it was the Patels that spearheaded anti-affirmative action protests in the s in Gujarat. The issue even contributed to the community switching loyalties from the Congress Party to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has since dominated the state and today controls the federal government.
Hardik Patel is too young to remember the upheaval of the s protests. But he does recall their power. Today there is the BJP," he has warned. Already a subscriber? Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations.
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Community Connect. People Making a Difference. The fact that Gujaratis are not represented well in these sectors is their own doing, particularly that of the Patels. I have written in Mint Lounge before about how many of those convicted after the riots are Patels.
Having totally and absolutely aligned themselves to the BJP and its actions, the Patels cannot now claim that they are marginalized. My guess is this agitation will fail, because Patels cannot rebel against the BJP. They surrendered their options long ago when they enthusiastically hitched their lot to Hindutva.
Hardly to the Congress, which they hate. The one good thing that this agitation will do is that it will make more of us Patidars rethink the way we see our culture and identity. I guarantee that it will come as a shock to many Patels, particularly the highly communalized group in the US that backs Hindutva, that they are in fact shudra. Aakar Patel is the executive director of Amnesty International India.
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