As a part of his campaign, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has decided to meet-and-greet dynamic leaders of different castes and communities ahead of the Gujarat Assembly Election. On the 3d of November 2017, Rahul Gandhi has met up with the Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani.
The 36-year-old ‘Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch’ leader, entered the headlines after the incident of thrashing of Dalits in Gujarat’s Una last year.
Mevani met with Gandhi at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Navrasi. The demands put forward by the Dalit leader to the BJP, have not even considered or been even been talked about by the ruling party and the Dalit group.
But the talk with the Congress- Rahul Gandhi has been fruitful. The Congress will incorporate 90% of Mevani’s demands said, Rahul Gandhi.
“We had a detailed discussion with Rahulji on our 17 demands. Rahulji not only listened to us but said that over 90 % of them were our constitutional rights. He assured us that most of the legitimate demands would be included in the Congress manifesto”, Mehvani said.
Asked whether he would advise Dalits to vote for the Congress in the upcoming polls, Mevani said, “I will ask my community not to vote for the BJP.”
The demands include five acres of farmland to each Dalit family, alternative employment for those involved in cattle- skinning and manual scavenging, and the release of a probe report on the incident of firing on the community members at Thangadh in Surendranagar district in 2012.
“We listen to everyone and work after hearing their problems – be it Jignesh, Hardik (Patidar quota stir leader Hardik Patel) or Alpesh (OBC leader Alpesh Thakor)”, Rahul said after the meeting.
The BJP is more interested in its radio show ‘Mann Ki Baat’, rather than listening to the concerns of the people, said Gandhi, taking a swipe at the BJP.
Congress has been wooing the three young leaders who have emerged on Gujarat’s political firmament in recent times through various agitations.
OBC leader Alpesh Thakor has already joined the party.
Hardik Patel, the Patidar quota stir leader, the most prominent among the three, has so far not declared support to the Congress but has been critical of the BJP.
Congress has so far agreed to the demand for formation of a special investigation team (SIT), if voted to power, to investigate alleged atrocities against the members of the community during the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) rally in Ahmedabad on August 25-26, 2015, senior Congress leader Siddharth Patel said. He said legal action would be taken against those found guilty.
It also promised a withdrawal of all police cases against Hardik’s PAAS members, including on the serious charge of sedition. If voted to power, the Congress government would make an ex gratia payment of Rs 35 lakh to the kin of those killed during the quota agitation and a government job to one member of their families, Patel said.
The Congress would form a commission for general category communities and provide it with a corpus of Rs 2,000 crore for education, skill development, and self-employment, he said.
The reservation issue, however, can prove a major hurdle in Hardik Patel’s extending support to the Congress as Alpesh Thakor, who heads the Kshatriya Thakor Sena, has been opposed to the reservation to the Patels within the quota meant for the backward classes.
In fact, Thakor had launched an agitation to counter the one led by Hardik Patel for reservation for his community.
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