Painful Patel Punch: A National Social Re-engineering Experiment!
BY R.K.MISRA Society is like a stew. If you don’t stir it scum floats to the top. But those who do so must bear the burden of the stink. Both stirred and shaken, Gujarat is going through turmoil-filled days as it’s affluent and numerically strong patidar (patel) community mounts a fierce assault for OBC reservation that is straining the fabric of inter-community harmony to it’s tensile limits. Fearful of a Patidar led-Anandiben Patel- government caving in to their demands, a counter-movement against it is building up as well.Two days ahead of the Patel’s biggest ever show of community strength on August 25, the Other Backward Classes(OBC) mobilized members from the 146 communities in it’s fold for a dharna near the Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad on August 23.The SCs and STs symbolically joined it and the tone and tenor were distinctly repudiatory of the Patels.”Any move by the government or any community to snatch our rights will first ensure this government’s pack