Our Correspondent /
New Delhi: The RSS is behind the now famous Patel(Patidars) community agitation in Gujarat, a senior Congress leader from the western state, Shaktisinh Gohil said here. He also claimed that intra-BJP squabbling between Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and BJP president Amit Shah too has contributed to make things worse.
“It is RSS game plan. They have always used Gujarat as a laboratory. In 2002, they played hardliner Hindutva experiment and now they want to taste the water…..they want to experiment whether upper castes unite against the reservation policies of backward and deprived communities,” Gohil said on the sidelines of conference of chairpersons of Public Accounts Committee of state legislatures.
Gohil, chairman of Gujarat PAC, is in Delhi to participate in a two-day conference of the chairpersons of the Public Accounts Committee of state legislatures convened by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
“The speed in which such a large crowd gathered implies the hands of RSS and other Hindutva bodies like VHP…They are good at organising such shows,” he said, however, adding that the agitation also has a lot to do with the “growing differences” between BJP president Amit Shah and the Chief Minister Anandiben Patel.
“While the Chief Minister is on a weak footing as an administrator and largely being guided and misguided by as section in BJP and the bureaucracy; Amit Shah is keen for a shot at the chief ministership,” he said.
Answering questions whether his allegations merit sense as Shah is already national BJP president, Gohil, himself a former Leader of the Opposition in Gujarat assembly, shot back, “it is the dream of all Gujarat politicians to be the Chief Minister one day”.
He argued, Amit Shah was “reportedly assured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi” that his turn will come in 2017 after assembly elections, Gohil said adding, “Amit Shah also realises that after 2017….BJP will face stiff challenge and lose power…..so he wants to try for an innings in Gandhinagar before 2017 itself”.
Mr Gohil further claimed, “there will be more such problems in Gujarat if Amit Shah does not get an extension as BJPchief soon”.
However, he alleged the RSS and BJP leadership have “realised” that the Patel stir has also exposed certain weakness in Gujarat’s much hyped developmental model”.
“Mr Modi sold his Gujarat model across India…the myth is now exploded. Patidars are mainly into agriculture and that community is unhappy with the way things have moved and land have been passed onto private parties and industrialists in the name of developments…so every issues combined together to the success of Patidars agitation,” he said.
Gohil denied Congress in the state in any ways has been trying to fish in the ‘troubled waters’ aftermath the Patel. But he added, in almost tongue-in-cheek manner, “the but the water in Gujarat is troubled and Narendra Modi is responsible for leaving the state in such a mess”.
This, he said, has led to a situation wherein Congress strongly feels, “BJP days are numbered in Gujarat”.