On today’s (11/08/2016) Times of India, a shocking news appeared on the first page, titled ‘Sweltering Shahjahanpur gets a Snowplough’. The story says that the municipality of Shahjahanpur town has bought a Snowplough machine! Like most of India, Shahjahanpur never gets a snowfall, and the story mentions that temperature of 45° Celsius & above is routine during summer in the town. So a snowplough bought by municipality of such a town looks like one of those blatant corruptions that we regularly see in various levels of administration in India. They published a photo of the snowplough with the story, and informed that it is a JCB 170, that model number can be seen on the vehicle in the photo also.
The image of the vehicle TOI has posted with the story
After seeing the photo, two things immediately struck my mind. The vehicle does not look like a Snowplough, and the machine looked like those Bobcat Skid Steer Loaders that Guwahati Municipal Corporation here is using to clear garbage and mud from ground and load onto trucks. So I Googled for JCB 170 and found yes, it is indeed a Skid Steer Loader, not a Snowplough!
Lets explain both the machines a bit. Snowploughs are used to clear snows from ground. They come in various sizes, from small ones for home lawns to gigantic ones for clearing hundreds of kilometres of highways. Although most of us have not seen these in India, we have seen these in action on movies and TV.
JCB India’s Skid Steer Loader webpage, the image is enough to know its use.
On the other hand, Skid Steer Loaders are the smallest of such machines. The Bobcat loaders I have seen are smaller than a Tata Nano. They are used to clear things from ground and load onto trucks. They don’t have a conventional steering mechanism, their wheels on both sides are independently attached to transmission, and they turn by varying the speed of wheels on either side, much like tanks & other vehicles on tracked wheels do. Hence the name Skid Steer Loader, their wheels skid on the ground to steer. Due to this, they have zero turning radius, which allows them to work efficiently in narrow lanes and confined places. They have a very rigid construction, making them very reliable. Originally made by two American brothers for use in farms who later founded the Bobcat Company, this machine is now also used across the world to clean roads & other urban areas. Their small size, extreme maneuverability, and unique broom design make them ideal for collecting garbage and mud and loading them onto trucks.
So, while Shahjahanpur nagar palika may have purchased a machine which will help them in keeping the town clean, it is a bizarre that Times of India mistook the machine as Snowplough and published the story on front page, alleging potential corruption.
2014 was a watershed year in Indian politics. Not only did a non-Congress backed coalition gain an absolute majority (comfortably at that), it did so by traversing through one of the trickiest and most rewarding political terrains in India. For decades, Uttar Pradesh, has been ridden with caste-based politics. The two prime regional parties are both founded and popular solely based on the caste arithmetic and no other reason. Given the ground realities of caste-arithmetic and poor organisational base, BJP did a stellar job picking up 73 seats from UP (along with its ally), out of the possible 80, decimating its opponents.
Post poll analysis showed that BJP won, because it succeeded in uniting the fragmented vote, which was always divided on caste lines. As study after study showed, BJP and its allies enjoyed a very strong vote share from across cross-sections of the society, from Dalits to Upper Castes.
Come 2016, we are now are very close to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. And the traditional foes of BJP have woken up. Having licked their wounds from 2014, they have learnt their lesson and their strategy is out in the open. For Delhi 2015, it was the fake “Christians under Attack” routine which was eventually demolished by investigators. For Bihar 2015, it was the “Award Wapsi” season, which sank without a trace the very day the elections were over. For UP 2017, the idea is clear: break-up the united castes of UP.
A dangerous game is now being played, that of turning castes against each other. Atrocities against Dalits are being highlighted by some interested parties. Yes, the backward castes of India are indeed in many places under-privileged, and any genuine atrocity against them needs to be dealt with, but this time we are seeing a new wave of manufactured outrage.
Congress Social Media cell operators are digging out videos from 2011 and blindly labelling them as atrocities against Dalits. How once can figure out who are Dalits and who are not, just from a grainy video is beyond comprehension. These are then spread by a select coterie of journalists. AAP leaders, who were formerly against caste politics are now openly batting for caste-related outrage.
It may be argued that it is expected of political parties to be playing this game, but now we have media also giving a helping hand. The unfortunate attack on Dalits in Una by “cow vigilantes” was hyped and discussed to no end on mainstream media, so much so that even PM Modi was forced into condemning Gau Rakshaks who took law into their hands. But no media house is hyping the fact that one of these cow-loving criminals was a Muslim.
Earlier, we had shown how a journalist working with the Times of India lied on social media, trying to give a casteist angle to a crime. He had claimed that “dalit boys” were beaten by “upper caste”, which was then reported as gospel truth by many media houses, and was used for political propaganda. It was later revealed that 4 Dalits were among the people arrested for the crime. The Times of India reporter had by then deleted the tweet, but the news reports still exist.
Now, Times of India, is running a full-fledged campaign titled “Dalit Fury”. Every few days one sees a full page or at least a half page worth of articles, news reports, opinion pieces focusing solely on the above issue. If you see the caption on top of the page, you will see the words “Dalit Fury”. This of course has nothing to do with the news pieces in Times of India itself where they report how a Times of India owned University has been approved by the Samajwadi Party Government in UP. Conflict of Interest is of course not applicable to media houses.
Hacks from The Indian Express, are desperately trying to spin any event related to Dalits to Cows and Cow vigilantes. Regional journalists are left to clarify the facts:
The attack this time, is not one-sided though. It is not only “Dalits under attack”. Bigots masquerading as media persons have now left all pretence behind. Editor of The Telegraph, has taken to openly baiting lower castes by promoting enmity against Brahmins, all this based on shoddy data:
First we had “Mahaul is more important than Data” from the ever-disappointing Madhu Trehan of Newslaundry, then we had NDTV’s Sunetra Choudhury proclaiming that “news is always subjective”, now another journalist claims “Data is metaphorical”.
As columnist Rupa Subramanya pointed out, Sakarshan’s “data”, comes from an article written by Khushwant Singh way back in 1990! Not only is this “metaphoric data” more than 26 years old, it does not even come from an authentic source. By no stretch of imagination is Khushwant Singh any sort of authority on such data, and neither does he mention any reliable source for his assertion. This is the intellectual and moral bankruptcy journalists in India are ready to plummet to, only to make a point in a set narrative.
All this points to only one thing: There is a clear, concerted effort by some in politics and in the media, to split India along caste fault-lines, primarily for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, and as they would hope, even for any other electoral battles in the future. On the one hand manufacturing of atrocities against Dalits, and on the other, manufacturing hate for upper castes.
In all this, the biggest casualty will obviously be the real crimes happening against lower castes and dalits. By creating fake data and fake news, media will eventually trivialise the issue, leading the reader to be sceptical about every such event. Where media and civil society should have been fighting earnestly against atrocities on Dalits, we will now see a situation where exaggerated and false reports from media will take away the importance from the real issue.
Not so long ago, getting heard by even your local municipality corporator was unfathomable by most Indians. Then came the social media blitzkrieg by people like Shashi Tharoor and Modi. Modi was perhaps the first politician who saw the vast potential of social media in reaching out to masses and as he formed the government, he enforced his belief in social media outreach across the political and governance spectrum, forcing ministers and government officials and even opposition leaders like Lalu Yadav were forced to follow suit just to keep up with the competition.
And then came first hand social media support by cabinet rank ministers and government agencies over Twitter and Facebook, which literally was perhaps the most game changing move in participative governance, something which isn’t seen anywhere else. However like every other fairy tale, this one was about to find its eventual vamps and villains too.
Recently Twitter was abuzz with tweets about one man from Delhi having to go on his “honeymoon” alone because his wife had lost her passport 2 days before their honeymoon. This was suspiciously similar to this story of a Pakistani woman going on Honeymoon alone cause her husband’s visa was rejected. But there was something more suspicious here than that. Here is the sequence of events:
1. Faizan Patel (who apparently wasn’t a huge fan of Sushma earlier) suddenly out of nowhere posts a tweet praising her on 2nd August:
THENNOW
2. Soon, he goes on to post couple of tweets announcing loss of passport (at home) 2 days before “honeymoon”:
Visa Lost at home
3. And on the 6th of August, leaves abroad for the honeymoon, alone:
4. A few sympathy seeking posts, pics and tweets to Sushma:
5. Sushma replies and issues a duplicate passport to help the couple unite on the trip:
Bet that Pakistani girl who went on Honeymoon alone wished she had a Sushma Swaraj! Fairy tale! But hold on, social media users found a plot twist – The honeymoon wasn’t a honeymoon, the just married couple had not just married.
The couple in question got married in December 2015. They went on Honeymoon to Jim Corbett soon after. The current trip in question seems to be a group tour. Combine all of this together with “losing your passport at home” bit and you will be forgiven for questioning the intent behind the whole saga.
Was it a publicity stunt all the way? Should such privileges meant for emergency situations be extended to the most careless amongst us who lose their passport sitting in the comfy couches? Did they think about milking the situation half way through it? It gets worse when you come across dire situations completely ignored by Sushma Swaraj and her team like these:
Nothing to take away from the amazing work done by Sushma Swaraj and other government departments but in light of genuine dire cases being ignored and seemingly non urgent publicity stunts being given urgent attention, it does make one wonder if the boon of social media is also its bane, if chances of you getting help on twitter is directly proportional to virality of your request and even your marketing skills and social clout.
Faizan Patel, his wife and a lot of their friends could have been, at the very least, unethical in their behaviour for creating a sob-story about newlywed couple on their first honeymoon. They received help based on that story, which appears spiced up. The issue here should not be about whether a Modi-Government hater can ask the Government for help. He certainly can because a Government is elected to serve all people, supporters as well as adversaries. The focus should be on the possibility that a set-up was used to deceive a ministry.
Also, should ministers and government departments have a relook at their social media strategy to make sure the most urgent cases get their attention first and not non urgent publicity stunts? You be the judge.
A running acrimony necessitated a walk down memory lane for me, into a time when the sun seemed to be a little cooler, the air a little clearer and we heard the chirp of birds more than honking vehicles.
For as long back as I look into my childhood I remember the annual celebration of “Saawan” with the unbroken chain of my parents’ Kaanwar Yatras with their large yatra group. I remember my father going on the yatras with my grandmother who was in her late 60s then. After I learnt to button my own shorts, grandmother stopped and my mother joined my father on the annual pilgrimage. My father had an unbroken run for more than 30 years, I remember my mom going along with him for more than 20 years.
Preparations would begin a couple of weeks before the onset of Saawan. There was great excitement for visiting Lord Shiv in Devghar on the first Somvar (first Monday) of Saawan. The saffron kurtas, shorts, mom’s saffron saree would be brought out, washed and dried. My sisters and I were tasked with repairing and decorating the Kaanwars. On the day of departure, many uncles and aunties (everyone in your parents’ age group is either an uncle or an aunty) would gather at one place, men in saffron short sleeved kurtas adorned with the words “Bol Bum” and/or images of Lord Shiv, and shorts, and women in saffron sarees.
My parents’ group, like all others, had people from diverse backgrounds. There’d be Singhjis, Jhajis, Sinhajis, Paswanjis, Manjhijis. There were Brahmins, Rajputs, Bhumihars, Baniyas and Dalits, men and women, young, not-so-young, and old, many of them my father’s subordinates at office. But on the pilgrimage, they’d all address each other with perfect equanimity suffixing “bum” after the names, as Singh-bum, Manjhi-bum, Tiwari-bum, Babloo-bum, Chhotu-bum etc.
This cultural tradition perhaps predates by centuries (possibly millennia) the communist discovery of the need to call each other “Comrades” for equality’s sake!
The kaanwariyas congregated and pooled auto rickshaws to the bus stand and even the autos would have stickers of Lord Shiv or ‘Bol Bum’ written. The entire road and nearly the entire colony would be in a deluge of saffron, for almost every house had a kaanwariya. Before they left they’d sing and dance on the roads to beats of the dholak and folk songs in honor of the Lord. Maithilis would tastefully sing Vidyapati’s songs written in the 14th century. It was great fun to watch the otherwise grumpy looking uncles in shorts, dancing clumsily but spirited, happy and carefree, to the beats of the dholak.
The party would leave and the colony would be in the hands of the kids until the next week. This was particularly exciting for me because there’d be no one to stop me from watching TV or playing beyond sunset or coaxing me to study. Or so I would think…
My sisters would suddenly turn mom for me and stop me from doing everything that mom or dad would stop me from. In a few years I would myself learn to conduct more responsibly in my parents’ absence. The colony would also turn up to parent us in the interim, with aunties and uncles paying visits and checking if we needed something. The neighborhood doodh-wala would deliver milk at homes of all the pilgrims. The kirana-wala would often reassure “paisa rakho, kuchh aur zarurat pada toh? Note kar lete hain, papa ayenge to le lenge”. (Don’t pay, you might need it for something else. I’ll make a note in my books. I will take it from your father upon his return).
This annual pilgrimage brought out the best even in those who did not go for it. Apart from the inherent human goodness and community values, they did it for sharing the blessings of Lord Shiv by serving families of the pilgrims in whatever little way they could. They were not bound by considerations of caste or status.
On the 108 km barefooted walk from Sultanpur to Devghar, my parents and their group would walk together in the rain and the sun, support when one slipped, nurse each other’s blisters or when one hurt their feet. They cooked and ate together, sang religious and folk songs together. The speed of the journey was determined by the slowest, for nobody should be left behind.
Upon their return from the Kanwar Yatra, us kids and our neighbours would get together and we would wash the feet of all Kanwariyas with lukewarm water and wipe them dry. All kids and our neighbours would partake in washing the Kanwariyas’ swollen feet, ridden with cuts, huge blisters and the skin of their soles scaling out. It was believed that Kanwariyas on the pilgrimage and back are manifestations of Lord Shiv himself and serving them is the surest way to earn the Lord’s bliss.
My mom was particularly greedy about it and would ensure that we had touched and washed every foot. I would feel icky about the blisters and the hanging skins initially and would make sure I only touched the cleaner areas. Embarrassed, my mom would yell at me and order me to wash properly. One Majhi uncle, a Dalit, would feel very shy and coyly tell my mom, “Ap bachho se pair chhulwa ke paap karwayengi bhabhi ji” (You’ll make me sin by having my feet touched by children). But he’d have to give in to my mom’s insistence.
The next few days would be very difficult for my parents as it would be for others. They’d invariably fall ill. They’d be cranky and irritable and in a lot pain with aching bodies and blisters. Hoards of people would visit us to touch their feet, as with other pilgrims at their homes. As long as the blisters stayed, the grace of Lord Shiva was with them! And my parents wouldn’t mind elders by a few years, touching their feet because they knew they only wanted to earn some of the lord’s bliss and were happy to share it.
With such fond memories of Kaanwar yatras alive and vivid in my mind, it hurts to see news articles and tweets from eminent media personalities viciously attacking and maligning Kaanwariyas. Over the last few days, in interludes between “dalit atrocities have risen under Modi” stories, kaanwariyas have been charged with being traffic nightmares, being hoodlums, being jobless and causing terror:
This is how Kaanwar Yatra and kaanwariyas are mentioned now
One eminent journo who specializes in coup-fiction, fell short of declaring them as the cause of deluge in Delhi and Gurgaon. I am intrigued by the sudden attention to and animosity for Kaanwariyas in the liberal circles.
There are complaints of angry behaviour, bordering on “terror”, from kaanwariyas. The dumbing down and appalling usage of the word “terror” is shocking. One must understand that a crowd has a different mentality and a lesser bandwidth for reason vis-à-vis instigation. A crowd oppressed with travail may be even more flippant towards commuters (I mentioned my parents’ crankiness earlier). But likening them to “terror” is doing grave injustice to the people who have suffered at the hands of real “terror”.
The scale may be less pronounced but we are not unknown to the socio-ecological phenomenon at play here. In ecology, we study man-animal conflicts, in demography we study migration, refugee crises and the conflicts that fall out of it.
Kaanwariyas used to own the tracks, but the tracks have now been replaced by pitched roads. The cities and their motorists own the roads. There are two kinds of participants on the same route now, each unable to relate with the other’s priorities, each thinking of the other as the “invader”. Lately, governments have thought over it and laudably so:
The conflict?
But could this administrative focus have brought Kanwar Yatras into liberal focus too? A celebration so massive that governments have to ramp up and make elaborate arrangements, and that must prove to be an eyesore for the “liberals”.
Holi has been beaten with the stick of water conservation concerns, Diwali with environment conservation and scared stray dogs’ concerns, Maha-kumbh with drug abuse and prostitution concerns, Ganpati Puja with law & order, corruption, water pollution concerns, but fortuitously, Kaanwar Yatras were left out… until now. Will they be beaten with law and order and administrative concerns until studies are conducted in JNU, Jadhopur and by Oxbridge liberals and more solid concerns, threatening human existence on planet earth are identified?
At a time when liberals are disturbed, pained and outraged by “sudden appearance of, and rapidly increasing atrocities against Dalits under Modi”, the egalitarian tradition of Kaanwar yatras where castes and classes evaporate, should give them hope! Or could this be their biggest problem?
At a time when they’re assiduously peddling re-emergence and virulent propagation of Dailt atrocities, Kaanwar yatras stand in the way of their targeted imagery? The entire liberal ecosystem’s existence in India depends on keeping Dalits as Dalits. When dalits stop feeling wronged, there’ll be none to outrage for! More importantly, if Dalits connect with their Hindu identity, their entire dream of a divided Hindu society falls flat. This would be a giant thorn sticking from their throats right down to the liberal intestines!
Maybe it’s a combination of all these concerns for the detractors. That’s why the modern propaganda must be countered to keep these age-old traditions alive and realize their integrative potential. All the same, the genuine concerns should be dealt with administratively and with targeted messaging in order to deal with changes and conflicts.
My parents’ Kaanwar group transmorphed into an extended family, specially post-retirement. All Kaanwariyas from the group keep in touch and visit each other often. Owing to age & frailty, their kaanwar yatras have discontinued but have been replaced by get-togethers once a year over satsangs. Most kids have families and the kids are each other’s family friends now. 108 km of torturous walk together has given all of them friendships that would comfort them for life.
Towards the end of a ‘town hall’ organized by MyGov, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave an unexpected headline to the media: he launched an attack on those calling themselves ‘gau rakshaks’ i.e. cow protectors.
The statement by Modi was not in response to any direct question posed by any participant of the town hall. Thus it can be argued that he considered it important to convey this message.
There is a context to it: Of late, there have been many reports in the media, especially after the Una incident in Gujarat, where cow vigilante groups have taken law into their own hands and indulged in violence under garb of cow protection. On most occasions, the victims of violence in these cases were dalits.
In fact, it all started with the beef ban debate in March last year when an almost 20 years old law passed by Maharashtra assembly banning cattle slaughter and sale of beef became talking point again. The so-called liberals made it appear as if ban on cow slaughter and beef consumption was something introduced in India by Narendra Modi, even though it has been a part of Directive Principles of the constitution.
The beef debate reached its climax with the Dadri lynching incident in Uttar Pradesh in September last year, where a man named Akhlaq was killed on suspicion of killing a cow and consuming beef. Many commentators in media questioned Narendra Modi’s silence on the issue, but Modi never issued a direct statement about it.
The closest Modi came to talking about the Dadri incident was during an election rally before Bihar assembly elections when he asked Hindus and Muslims not to fight on petty issues. But he didn’t say anything about beef or cow protection. In fact, before the last leg of Bihar elections, BJP issued ads that talked about cow protection.
Apart from Dadri incident, another incident that hogged limelight was one where two suspected cattle smugglers were killed and hanged from a tree in Jharkhand in March this year. The media chose to focus on religion of the victims, who happened to be Muslims, and made it about beef even though it was about cattle smuggling. Modi didn’t speak up about cow vigilantism after this as well.
A couple of months back media highlighted yet another report where two suspected cow smugglers – again Muslims – were beaten up and reportedly made to eat cow dung by “gau-rakshaks”. This was the first major story that involved gau-rakshaks as earlier ones were mostly about some village groups not necessarily belonging to any political or social organization. This incident was filmed and triggered a series of many videos showing cow vigilante groups indulging in violence. Again, Modi didn’t speak after it.
But Modi has spoken now.
Has he surrendered to the media narrative and reacted to an agenda set by the “liberals” by doing so?
Some on the “right” appear to think so.
It’s a clear climb down; however, it will be quite naive to think that Modi has surrendered only due to the media pressure. Media has been cooking the beef story for around 2 years now claiming “minorities” under siege. What is noteworthy is that Modi chose to break his silence only after “dalits” entered the scene, that too in his home state Gujarat i.e. after the Una incident last month.
There was nothing special in media coverage of Una, which could be argued to be missing in Akhlaq or other stories. What was special this time was large group of people – dalits – coming out in streets to protest against the incident. And unlike a rowdy group damaging properties, some of these dalits used “suicide” as a mode of protest. Unfortunately one person who committed suicide to protest died earlier this week.
Modi surrendered to that pressure.
It should be noted that the attempt to hyphenate Muslims and Dalits over beef issue has been on agenda since March 2015 itself. When the ‘beef ban’ chatter of Maharashtra started, the Adarsh Liberals tried to claim it was anti-dalit as well, but that chatter was limited to their inner circles only in their board rooms and editorial spaces. The Una incident took the chatter to streets, and the agenda threatened to materialize.
Modi surrendered to that threat.
It’s clear that Modi sees dalits as his potential voters, and that he needs to reach out to them. He was not trying to score brownie points with media or Adarsh Liberals by branding majority of gau-rakshaks criminals, but he was sending a signal to the dalits – that someone appearing to represent me can’t damage your dignity and security.
The section on the “right” angry over Modi sees his statement as surrender to the “liberal” agenda. From that point of view, Modi appears erring by issuing a statement itself, and thus responding to an agenda. Not only that, he errs by not raising the issue about cow slaughter, cattle smuggling (it can destroy a rural family for whom cattle could be the only asset), and Hindu sentiments for cows while condemning gau-rakshaks.
But for Modi, he was not reacting to any liberal agenda, he was communicating to dalits.
Whether he has been successful in communicating, we will know after the elections in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
Of late the BJP government has been heavily criticized for silence on Cow Vigilantes. Before today, Narendra Modi had not given any powerful statement on the issue. Today, while speaking at the first MyGov townhall, Narendra Modi has expressed his anger against people who are running around as cow vigilantes
#WATCH PM Narendra Modi’s strong criticism against so called “gau rakshaks” (cow protectors) in the nation.https://t.co/qF3vbbjnJv
Modi said that he was extremely angered by these so called Gau Rakshaks who are in fact involved in anti social activities and use Cow Vigilantism as a facade. He also requested state governments to track people who are leading cow-vigilante groups. He ask people to instead become Gau Sevaks by saving cows who die due to ingestion of plastic. Modi’s angry statement against cow-vigilante took no time to make national headlines and a hot topic on the social media. This is how social media have reacted:
PM @narendramodi rightly said in his Town Hall Interaction a few people are indulging in anti social activities under garb of Gau Rakshaks.
GST has been called historic, a game-changer, a unifier. Everybody has welcomed GST with open arms, right from all opposition parties (barring AIADMK), to economic experts. Even the average common man now feels GST will improve his life.
But when you ask people what GST actually is, very few people may be able to explain. Most might know that it stands for Goods & Service Tax, but thats where the train stops. Conceptual understanding of this economic concept is not known to many. And of course many people will have that embarrassing situation when a child asks them, with hope and earnestness, what GST really is.
If you want to get out of such tough conversations with young minds, or just fit-in to your MBA graduate office group, or just be the star of your family dinner, all you need to do is watch this video. Actress Pallavi Joshi explains with amazing ease, what GST is all about and how it will affect you. It is a very simplistic, bird’s eye view of GST and the major impact it will have on everyone’s lives:
After watching this, everyone should get at the very least a basic idea of what GST is. And if the video has sparked off the curiosity in you, and you want to go in deeper, you can always read our easy to digest primer on GST, which covers everything from the genesis, to the way ahead.
If you have already assumed that this is the most poetic tweet which you have read today, just hold on! After reading following tweets by Ashutosh, you will understand why your assumption was extremely wrong.
Let us start the entertainment with some inebriation
I drink , but i am not drunkard. i drink i dont create problem for others, i drink but i dont beat family members.
On 1st August 2016, the then Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel announced her resignation on Facebook, citing that in November she will turn 75 years old and as per BJP policy, no leader can hold any constitutional or party post once they cross the age of 75. While this was put as official reason, inefficient handling of the Patidar agitation & Dalits’ protests by Anandiben was also said to be one of the major reasons for her ouster.
With this, the hunt and race for the next Chief Minister of Gujarat started. State BJP Gujarat Chief Vijay Rupani, senior most Minister Nitin Patel, Purshottam Rupala (Rajya Sabha MP who was recently made a union minister in Narendra Modi), Tribal leader and current Gujarat Vidhan Sabha speaker Ganpat Sinh Vasava, and prominent Dalit leader Raman lal Vora were all in the fray. Apart from these, there were rumors of Amit Shah becoming the next CM of Gujarat.
The Parliamentary Board of BJP authorized Amit Shah to take the decision and Venkaiah Naidu made it clear that Amit Shah will be not be sent to Gujarat as he was very much needed at the national level for bigger battles. The board further decided to send Nitin Gadkari and Saroj Pandey as observers. Amit Shah also arrived in Ahmedabad to steer the decision-making process.
Shah held multiple round of discussion with all senior leaders at his Sarkhej Highway residence on 3rd August and post the meetings, Nitin Patel looked jubilant and Rupani claimed he was out of race. From that moment onward, everyone including the media assumed that Nitin Patel was going to be the next Gujarat CM and only formal announcement was needed on 5th August. Nitin Patel even started giving interviews to various TV channels and shared his vision to tackle Patidar agitation as Gujarat CM.
On 5th August, all MLAs were asked to arrive at Kamlam, Gandhinagar at 4.00 PM to decide on the next Gujarat CM but the meeting started only at 5.30 PM, which sources say is because of intense arguments between Anandiben Patel, who was pushing for Nitin Patel’s candidature, and Amit Shah, who wanted Vijay Rupani as next CM.
Vijay Rupani was an ideal candidate for Amit Shah and PM Modi as he is non-controversial, a staunch RSS man, a grassroots leader connected with party workers, and additionally, not a powerful mass leader who could later rebel against Modi and Shah in Gujarat.
On the other hand, there was no incentive of making Nitin Patel as CM as he was not able to control Patidar agitation. During peak of the agitation, Patidars even attacked and burnt his home in Mehsana. Nitin Patel is himself a Patidar, but he is not a popular figure in the community. On top of that, he is reported to be belonging to the Anandiben Patel camp, which doesn’t see eye to eye with Amit Shah’s camp.
With final word coming from PM Modi himself, Anandiben Patel had to back off from her demand and Vijay Rupani’s name was finalized. To pacify Anandiben Patel, Nitin Patel was declared as Deputy CM. Official declaration was made by Nitin Gadkari in the ensuing press conference and entire episode came to an end with sudden twist in the tail.
This entire episode once again reiterated that Amit Shah was the real boss of BJP Gujarat. This was rude shock for the media as well as their sources as everyone had started claiming that Nitin Patel was the next Gujarat CM.
Vijay Rupani
Vijay Rupani was born in a Jain family in Rangoon, Burma in 1956 and soon his family shifted to Rajkot, Gujarat in 1960. He first joined ABVP and later RSS at very young age of 15 years. He is the only state cabinet minister in the current regime who was jailed during the emergency. In 1987 he entered into electoral politics and become a councilor from Rajkot and later he served as Mayor from 1996 to 1997. He was also made Rajya Sabha MP from 2006 to 2012. In 2014, veteran leader Vajubhai Vala was made Karnataka Governor and Rupani contested his vacant seat from Rajkot and won with a very handsome margin.
Earlier this year in February, he was made Gujarat BJP Chief to steer BJP during the ongoing Patidar agitation and to make sure BJP remains in power in their bastion Gujarat. He is perceived to be very close to leaders like Keshubhai Patel, Narendra Modi, and most importantly National BJP President Amit Shah who tilted the balance in his favor.
Vijay Rupani lost his son 15 years ago in a tragedy in Ahmedabad and post that Rupani formed a trust in his son’s memory, which serves poor kids with education and other basic amenities. Rupani’s daughter stays in London and her younger son is studying in Nirma University in Ahmedabad.
Challenges ahead
Patidars have already started opposing Rupani’s elevation as CM and there have been mass protests in Patidar dominated areas in cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Mehsana, and Rajkot. Parties like AAP and Congress are trying to catch on this sentiments to get their slice of Patidar vote bank.
On the other hand Dandi Yatra is planned by Dalits from Ahmedabad to Dandi to protest the Una incident. Impact of the Dalit agitation is seen as more severe than Patidar agitation and can severely impact BJP’s fortune in Gujarat.
BJP’s clear stand on Patidar reservation has ensured that Gujarat’s second most influential community Koli Patels and other OBCs remain with BJP. On top of that, BJP still enjoys unprecedented support among the urban class in Gujarat.
Rupani has a tough challenge on his hand to ensure Patidar and Dalit agitations are controlled as soon as possible, and to make sure that BJP retains its bastion for the record 5th Time in a battle, which will be a very close fight unlike earlier elections.
After relative peace for around 2 years, terror returned to Assam today (5th August 2016). In a weekly market near eastern Assam town Kokrajhar, 3 terrorists fired indiscriminately on sellers and buyers present in the market, and lobbed grenades at people. Soon, security forces arrived and engaged the terrorists in a gunfight that lasted almost an hour. 1 terrorist was killed by security forces, while two were able to escape, according eyewitnesses. As of now, 13 people are dead, while several other injured persons are battling for their life in hospitals.
Majority of the dead are from Bodo community, six of them, while rest of the victims belong to Muslim, Assamese and Bengali communities, as revealed by police.
Although terror attacks are not new to Assam, and specifically not to this area, many people felt there was something unusual in this attack, which seems to not match with earlier terror incidents that the state has witnessed in last 3 decades. This was like a suicide mission, which was something the insurgent groups in Assam are not known to use. So, when preliminary reports came quoting police sources that it was an operation by NDFB(S), many people expressed doubt, both on television and on social media.
Many people wondered why a Bodo militant group, which is fighting for an independent homeland for Bodos, will kill Bodo people; and many pointed out that the operation looks like work of Jihadi group. There were reports of several Jihadi terrorists entering Assam from Bangladesh so this was a possibility.
But by the evening, the matter was somewhat cleared by Dr LR Bishnoi, IGP (BTAD). He categorically confirmed that preliminary investigations revealed that the dead terrorist was a NDFB(S) member. He mentioned that the mobile phone found on the body of the dead terrorist was earlier known to be used by a NDFB(S) commander, and the contact data and call data found on the phone points to link with NDFB(S). He also said that police had identified the other two terrorists that have escaped and they are known to be NDFB(S) operatives.
When asked why NDFB(S) would kill Bodo people, the police officer gave few possible reasons. In the month of July, several NDFB(S) militants had either been caught or killed by security forces. This had come across as a major blow to the organisation. In fact, the camp of its ‘army chief’ G. Bidai was reported to be surrounded by security forces somewhere near India-Bhutan border. Moreover, due to loss of its cadres, the extortion and ransom activities of the group had also been hit. So to distract security forces from its tail, the group could have carried out this horrific attack, so that the security forces are deployed at public places for protection of general public, instead of chasing NDFB(S) militants in jungles on India-Bhutan border areas.
Apart from that, when asked why NDFB(S) would do a suicide operation like this, Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who arrived at the site to monitor the situation, said that it is possible it was not a suicide mission, the terrorists may have planned to fire on and throw grenades on as many people as possible in the crowded market quickly and then run away before police arrives. But unfortunately for them, security forces arrived sooner than anticipated and engaged them in a gunfight, which resulted in death of one terrorist. He also added that NDFB(S) is facing shortage of funds and so they may have done this to terrorise people into paying up. On the identity of the terrorists, apart from repeating what police said, he also informed that police has photos and other documents that shows that the dead terrorist was related to NDFB(S).
This much is known about the incident so far. More details will emerge after detail investigations are complete, and after the runway terrorists are caught alive, hopefully.
