Tag: Madhavsinh Solanki

As Gujarat CM, Madhavsinh Solanki Was the Precursor to Mandal Politics

He rode to power after uniting Gujarat’s marginalised classes, but was unable to politically empower these sections.

Madhavsinh Solanki, who passed away at the ripe old age of 93 on Saturday, will be remembered for being the precursor to what later came to be known as Mandal politics under V.P. Singh’s prime ministership which sought to empower the other backward classes (OBCs). He became Gujarat’s chief minister after leading the Congress to win 142 assembly seats in 1980, followed by 149 seats in 1985. Keen political watchers attribute Solanki’s success to uniting backward castes, Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims.

As the story goes among Congress circles, Indira Gandhi advised the party’s Gujarat leaders in the late 1970s to work out ways to “consolidate” four major sections of the population – backward castes, Scheduled Tribes, Dalits and Muslims. It prompted two senior Congressmen, Jhinabhai Darji and Sanat Mehta, to work out what later came to be known as the KHAM theory, uniting Kshatriyas (included the two main OBC groups Thakores and Kolis), Harijans (a term no longer used, refers to the Scheduled Castes), Adivasis and Muslims. They constitute nearly three-fourths of the state’s population.

Solanki’s job, as chief minister, was to galvanise the administration to implement the KHAM theory. Himself a Thakore, a community mainly consisting of descendants of the foot-soldiers during the British rule, he concentrated on the OBCs, to whom he gave 21% reservation. “This virtually led to the entire OBC population – nearly half the state’s population – to support Solanki”, said a senior Congress leader. “It showed during the polls, though at the expense of losing the support of the Patels and upper castes.”

Even though KHAM helped Congress win big – 142 seats in 1980 and 149 seats in 1985 – Solanki failed to politically empower any of the sections which had helped him become the chief minister. Facts show the majority of those who won on Solanki’s KHAM-cum-reservation campaign in 1985 were non-OBCs.

A breakup worked out by social scientist Ghanshyam Shah suggests only 31 out of 149 seats Congress won went to OBCs, consisting of Kshatriyas, Kolis and Ahirs; 29 to “middle castes”, consisting of non-OBCs, especially Patels; 36 to upper castes (Brahmins and Banias); and eight to Muslims. Congress won 25 of 26 seats won by Scheduled Tribe candidates and all 13 won by Scheduled Castes.

With his exit, Congress’s downfall began

In his second term, which began in 1985, Solanki was forced to resign within months after his victory, at the insistence of the Congress high command – especially Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi – following a violent anti-reservation agitation in the mid-1980s which turned communal. With Solanki’s ouster, the Congress’s downfall began. Amarsinh Chaudhury, an Adivasi, was installed chief minister and forced to suspend the reservations given to the backward castes.

A senior Congress leader conceded that soon, the Congress began losing its core base of OBCs, Adivasis and Dalits. “Unable to keep the flock together, many leaders also began switching over to the BJP,” the leader said.

Solanki was brought back to power in 1989 for a short period, but it didn’t help. Made minister for external affairs in 1991, he put in his papers the next year after meeting the Swiss foreign minister who reportedly told him to halt inquiries into the Bofors scam.

I was witness to his weak handling of the ministry during my Moscow stint as a foreign correspondent (1986-1993). On coming out of the meeting he had with his then-Soviet counterpart, I asked him about the issues that were discussed during the talks. After detailing discussions on several subjects, he said, “We also discussed some outstanding issues.” I asked him what those were. Indian ambassador A.S. Gonsalves intervened, perhaps sensing that Solanki would blurt out differences on the non-proliferation treaty. Later, the then-political counsellor in the Indian embassy, told me, “Solanki had a short nap during the meeting. He looked bored.”

A suave politician, Solanki would proudly say how he helped trigger major social sector shifts – one of them being pan-Indian. He told me about a conversation he had with Indira Gandhi, who expressed “extreme concern” over the high dropout rate among school-going children. “I offered her the solution to provide mid-day meals in schools. She readily accepted this and asked officials to work out details,” he told me.

The mid-day meal scheme was not just adopted in Gujarat but across India and continues to be a major social support system. Another major policy shift which Solanki talked about was bringing down the very high dropout rate among Gujarati girls – one of the highest in India. “We decided to provide free education to girls right up to the university,” he told me, regretting, though, that it was discontinued by Narendra Modi after he became the chief minister of Gujarat in 2001.

Remained private after retiring

One who shied away from public appearances after he said goodbye to active politics in 1991, he lived a quiet life at his residence in Sector 19 in Gandhinagar. Solanki is known to have grievances against Sonia Gandhi’s top aide Ahmed Patel, who died of COVID-19 a few weeks ago. He made a short appearance in a Congress rebel meeting in Gandhinagar, held to hold Ahmed Patel responsible for the party’s “humiliating” defeat in the December 2002 assembly elections.

Popular among the numerically strong OBC Thakore sub-caste, to which he belonged, he was constantly approached by candidates to campaign during polls to galvanise OBC voters. A senior Congress leader, whom I met in 2007 in the North Gujarat town Patan, lamented, “If only Solanki had come to campaign just once, we would win this seat. Without him, this seems difficult.”

Solanki refused to talk politics during personal meeting, or even criticise Modi—except to regret how two of the schemes which he had envisaged – midday meal and free education to girls – had been undermined after Modi came to power. He would instead give details about the new books which he had read, ranging from Hitler’s Mein Kempf to a book on how western medicines were based on traditional home remedies that Indians use in their daily lives. One of those who was called to speak at the golden jubilee celebrations of Gujarat in 2010 in the state assembly, Solanki didn’t utter any work of criticism against either BJP or Modi.

The collapse of Solanki’s KHAM coalition came in handy for Modi to woo the Congress’s OBC politicians. One of them was Udesinh Baria, whom I met covering an election. A top Solanki loyalist and an influential OBC leader from Godhra, Baria kept meeting Solanki to pay his obeisance even after joining the saffron party. According to Baria, in a bid to woo him, Modi said, “I have great respect for Madhavsinh. But in politics, you must move forward to work for a cause. I am an OBC, and so are you. We must come together.”

Madhavsinh Solanki – Former Gujarat CM, Union Minister, Congress Veteran – Passes Away

Solanki had floated an idea of an alliance of Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim (‘KHAM’) castes and communities in Gujarat for Congress to win elections.

Ahmedabad: Former foreign minister and Congress veteran Madhavsinh Solanki, who had also served as chief minister of Gujarat, died in Gandhinagar on early Saturday morning, Congress leaders said. He was 93.

“The death of Madhavsinh Solanki has brought extreme grief. May God give peace to his soul. He had made place in the hearts of people by his actions and deeds,” Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda, who is also a relative of Solanki, tweeted.

He had served as External Affairs Minister from June 1991 to March 1992. Solanki was a two term MP of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat.

He had floated an idea of an alliance of Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim (‘KHAM’) castes and communities in Gujarat for Congress to win elections.

He had been the longest serving chief minister of the state before Narendra Modi became chief minister.

His son Bharatsinh Solanki is also a former Union minister.

Winds Blowing Over Gujarat, but Do They Foretell Change?

The BJP camp is nervous and a number of factors seem to be working against it – but will this be enough to tilt the balance?

The BJP camp is nervous and a number of factors seem to be working against it – but will this be enough to tilt the balance?

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi meeting the supporters during his visit to Gujarat. Credit: PTI

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi meeting the supporters during his visit to Gujarat. Credit: PTI

Strong winds are blowing over the political landscape of Gujarat, but one does not know whether these are that of change. Although Narendra Modi cannot afford to lose the forthcoming assembly elections in Gujarat, since this will compromise his position as prime minister (which is a kind of guarantee that he will go all out and ensure that he does not), the fact of the matter is that the BJP is finding the going rather tough.

“The Congress will not defeat the BJP. If per chance BJP loses it will be because the people would have defeated them,” says a senior political analyst in the state. He adds: “Fatigue has set in. BJP has been in power for 22 years. This is working against the party.” But it is a million dollar question whether the voters will kick the BJP out lock stock and barrel. Analysts feel that the disenchantment with the party is strong but perhaps not strong enough for voters to subject it to such a fate.

The status quo however, has been disturbed in Gujarat. The first sign of this came two months ago, in mid-August, when the Congress party was trying to save Ahmed Patel’s Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat in the face of deserting party men. To keep its flock of MLAs together and ensure that they were not poached, the legislators were kept in safe custody at a resort belonging to Karnataka Congress minister D. K. Shiva Kumar in far off Bengaluru. Immediately tax officials went after the minister, making it obvious to observers why Shiva Kumar was being targeted. Strangely in Gujarat, a sympathy wave could be seen in favour of Ahmed Patel and the Congress: the people felt that the Congress was being unfairly targeted. The Congress never had this sort of sympathy earlier.

Also read: Fast Changing Equations in Poll-Bound Gujarat, BJP Uncomfortable on Home Turf

Added to this was the angst of the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in a society dominated by traders. GST had promised a transparent tax system without any hassle, but instead, the people had to bear with a system that was not only opaque but also came with a lot of paperwork and procedures. What is more, it meant higher costs and resulted in incensing traders who have traditionally formed the backbone of the saffron party. The rigours of the GST affected small traders and consumers badly at a time when they were already broken by demonetisation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat. Credit: PTI

The nervousness in the BJP can be discerned from the prolonged camping of the party president Amit Shah in Gujarat and the frequent trips made by Modi to the state. To refocus on Gujarat, Modi inaugurated the bullet train project from Ahmedabad to Mumbai and the RoRo (roll on roll off) services that reduces the journey time across the Gulf of Khambat on water. He also inaugurated many other small projects seen as wooing the electorate. To appease post seekers and others demanding favours, the posts of chairmen of government boards and companies (that are traditionally filled up at the beginning of a term) have suddenly been filled up just a day before the announcement of the new elections were made by Election Commission. The idea has been to keep dissensions in the party at the bare minimum.

Congress has been alleging that the Election Commission delayed the announcement of the dates of the next elections and this has allowed the Gujarat government to keep announcing new schemes. The term of the Gujarat assembly ends on December 15 – the new assembly will have to be elected and put in place by then. A two phase election has been announced by the Election Commission: on December 9 and December 14. The results are to be announced on December 18. The Election Commission cited flood relief work in North Gujarat as the reason for delaying the announcement of the elections, officials have however said that the relief work was completed weeks, if not months, earlier.

Also read: Textile Trader and BJP Member Who Led Anti-GST Movement in Surat Quits Party

Modi’s discomfiture has emboldened Rahul Gandhi and the latter has started stridently criticising the prime minister and labeled the GST ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’. Gandhi, who for the first time is eliciting a positive response in Gujarat, has declared that the beneficiaries of growth in the state have not been the people of the state, but a few businessmen. In a sense this is the crux of the matter. Liberalisation has led to inequalities in the countryside with an army of have-nots in rural Gujarat. Development has bypassed these have-nots who neither benefitted from jobs nor economic growth. The fact that they largely belong to the Patel community makes it especially notable: because the Patels, who form 18% of Gujarat’s population, have been the backbone of the support base of the saffron party since it came to power in 1995. In fact, it is the en masse shifting of the Patel support base, away from the Congress, that brought the BJP to a prime position in Gujarat in the early 1990s.

With the 24-year-young Hardik Patel articulating the new Patel concern of being bypassed by development, there is a rethink among Patels. But it is premature to predict that they will cast their votes against the BJP. Analysts however aver that there will be a split in Patel votes with part of it going in the kitty of opposition parties.

Alpesh

Alpesh Thakor in Thara, Gujarat. Twitter/Alpesh Thakor

Two other young leaders – Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani – are playing important roles in the Gujarat polls. Representing the Thakor community amongst OBCs, Thakor has now joined the Congress. This move will bring some votes to the Congress but not enough to tilt the balance. Mevani, a young savvy Dalit face, dreams of a Muslim- Dalit combine. He does not intend to join the Congress but wants to oust BJP from power.

Also read: Vaghela’s Exit From Congress Boosts the BJP in Gujarat but ‘Mission 150’ May Need More

Political analysts point out, those social groups which formed the Kshatriya Harijan Adivasi Muslim, or KHAM, combine, which powered the Congress to power in the early 1980s, are coming together once again. In some sense this has the power to self- destruct, because the Patels moved away to the BJP with vengeance as a reaction to the massing of KHAM in the Congress. Whether, 35 years later, the Patels will react in a similar fashion this time around, remains to be seen. But a lot of water has passed through the Narmada and Sabarmati in the interim and the polity of Gujarat has become decidedly Hinduised. Some analysts say that in Gujarat, a Patel or a Thakor or a Dalit or Brahmin or a Bania, think of themselves as a Hindu first before focusing on their caste/community identity. This is an identity built over the last 25 years, and will work greatly to the advantage of the BJP, even though Congress – avowedly a secular party – is not averse to temple politics in Gujarat.

The Gujarat assembly has 182 seats and the highest tally ever won by a party was 149 by the Congress in 1985 under Madhavsinh Solanki. In the last election, in 2012, the BJP won 116 seats, and at the beginning of the present campaign, BJP president Amit Shah gave a call for 150 seats. That, of course, seems to be an impossible target, unless something drastic happens in the run up to the polls.

Kingshuk Nag worked as resident editor of the Times of India in Hyderabad for many years. Prior to that he was the TOI’s resident editor in Ahmedabad.

What a Gujarat Don’s Story Tells Us About the Spirit of the State

The mid to late 1980s were a point of transition in Gujarat. As the Congress’s hold on power had weakened, the winner in this upheaval was the BJP – and the figure of Latif provided it with the perfect foil.

The mid to late 1980s were a point of transition in Gujarat. As the Congress’s hold on power had weakened, the winner in this upheaval was the BJP – and the figure of Latif provided it with the perfect foil.

shahrukh-khanWe will soon see Shah Rukh Khan as Raees on the big screen. Raees is said to be a fictionalised account of the eventful life of Abdul Latif Sheikh, the mafia don who dominated the illicit trade in liquor, money laundering, arms smuggling, kidnapping, extortion and more in Gujarat in the 1980s. By the time of his final arrest in 1995, Gujarat’s police had registered Latif and his gang in over 210 serious offences, including murder and rioting. By then, Latif was also linked to the even bigger don, Dawood Ibrahim, and is supposed to have aided the 1993 Bombay blasts.

The don and us

Cinema is fascinated by characters who live on the edge of society, and challenge its norms. Perhaps we enjoy watching our ‘others’: those outside the everyday mundanities of white and blue collar labour who seek only roti, kapda, makan, and the odd luxury. In more nuanced portrayals, we might confront the don with the golden heart, the one who helps his family and community, even as he is trampled by, or occasionally overcomes, the system.

While we place people like Latif outside society and its systems, the ‘other’ to our comfortable and complacent ‘us’, he was, in fact, integral to the making of contemporary Gujarat. As the upcoming film’s trailer tells us, our protagonist had a ‘baniye ka dimaag’, combined with ‘miyanbhai ki daring’. What was it that Latif traded that needed particular audacity? Latif traded in various resources that are valuable to us, but ultimately his dealings were in power. In this core business, he was deeply intertwined with Gujarat’s police, politicians, business, and government.

The spirit of the state

It is evident to anyone who knows anything about Gujarat that its prohibition laws are a sham. The longstanding ban on alcohol creates a highly valuable market that thrives on artificial scarcity. You can access any sort of liquor in Gujarat’s towns and villages, but at an inflated price. The business networks around the liquor trade profit state and non-state actors. The police takes as much as 40% commission for aiding, or at least ignoring, the trade in liquor. The Election Commission estimated that alcohol worth nearly 13 crore rupees was seized in Gujarat during the 2014 national election. Alcohol lubricates our democratic processes. Latif and his ilk are cogs in this massive machine.

While the state is all-too-present in some of Latif’s story, his rise is also explained by the absence of formal government institutions in other contexts. This has resulted in parallel institutional structures that provide state-like services of welfare and security. Latif grew up in inner city Ahmedabad, which has been plagued by repeated caste and communal violence. A major riot occurred in 1969 – with 30,000 Ahmedabadis displaced, rendered homeless, unemployed, injured and killed. The majority of victims were Muslim. For instance, in government records, of the 6,742 properties that were damaged, 6,071 belonged to Muslims. Many of these properties were near police posts, but still lacked protection for reasons of omission or commission.

Partisanship in government has only increased with time, as evidence from communal violence in 1985, 1992, 1998 and 2002 tells us. The spaces vacated by the state tend to be occupied by other big men, and very occasionally women. Latif is one such parallel service provider, who is said to have generously channelled money, food, protection and jobs to the besieged of his community.

Political reward and retribution

It is no surprise that the beneficiaries of Latif’s power and protection elected him to public office from not one, but five seats, in the Ahmedabad municipal elections of 1987. Though he had links with many of Gujarat’s politicians, including former and future chief ministers, Latif contested the election as an independent, from within jail. The institutions of policing, politics and government had mostly tolerated and even collaborated with Latif till this point. But election to office was a step too far. The ‘other’ had crossed too openly and audaciously across the boundary to ‘us’ and needed to be visibly put down.

The mid to late 1980s were a point of transition in Gujarat. The Congress’s hold on power had weakened, with one of the final blows coming from rioting orchestrated by opposition parties and groups in 1985. This resulted in the resignation of the popularly elected Congress chief minister, Madhavsinh Solanki. Subsequent governments led by the party were much weakened, and by the early 1990s depended on shaky coalitions. The winner in this upheaval was the BJP, and the figure of Latif provided it with the perfect foil.

Election campaigns of the time contrasted Latif Raj with the BJP’s promised Ram Raj. The tainted, criminal Muslim and his discredited political backers were pitched against the purity and promise of Hindutva. When Latif was killed by the police in custody in 1997, on the pretext that he had been trying to escape, celebratory crackers were burst in parts of Hindu, middle class Ahmedabad. Prominent Hindu leaders such as Keshubhai Patel of the BJP were lauded as Hindu hriday samrats, or kings of Hindu hearts, for vanquishing the devil. The devil, of course, lies without and within.

Nikita Sud teaches at Oxford University

Congress Works on Patels While BJP Looks to Dalits, Adivasis for Next Gujarat Polls

Though still important as a vote-bank, the politically fractured Patel-community may no longer be central to deciding who wins Gujarat.

Though still important as a vote-bank, the politically fractured Patel-community may no longer be central to deciding who wins Gujarat.

Rahul Gandhi at the Umiya temple. Both the Congress and the BJP have begun to prepare for the Gujarat elections next year. Credit: Damayantee Dhar

Rahul Gandhi at the Umiya temple. Both the Congress and the BJP have begun to prepare for the Gujarat elections next year. Credit: Damayantee Dhar

Mehsana (Gujarat): Congress seems to have set off its election campaign with vice president Rahul Gandhi addressing a rally in Mehsana – a Patel stronghold district of north Gujarat – on Wednesday.

Gandhi’s address comes amidst speculation of elections being brought forward in the state. The assembly election in Gujarat is due only in December 2017. However, there are rumours that it may be held as early as May.

Mehsana, the business headquarters of north Gujarat, is dominated by Patels who are a decisive vote bank in Gujarat. Noticeably, the district saw one of the most violent agitations against the BJP during the anti-reservation movement (Patidar Anamat Andolan) lead by Hardik Patel in August last year. 

Following the agitation, the BJP lost its hold in rural areas and lost local body elections that followed in 2015. The Congress won five district panchayats and 27 taluka panchayats then, all wrested from the BJP. 

Perhaps, gauging the importance of the Patels – who are about 15% of the population – Gandhi made a stop at Unjha, a town in Mehsana to visit the Umiya Mata temple, revered by the Kadva Patels, a sub-caste of the Patel community. 

Raul Gandhi at the Mehsana rally. Credit: Damayantee Dhar

Raul Gandhi at the Mehsana rally. Credit: Damayantee Dhar

The Patels are divided into two main sub-castes – Kadva and Leuva. “The north Gujarat districts like Mehsana and Banaskatha are dominated by Kadva Patels who form a majority in the state too, followed by Leuva Patels and then two smaller sub-castes – Chaudharys and Anjanas,” explains Achyut Yagnik, an Ahmedabad-based political analyst and activist. Together they form about 14 to 15% of the state’s electorate. “It is important to note”, he says,  “that Patels have been the BJP’s traditional support base since 1984-85. Before that, Congress had a strong hold over north Gujarat until the regime of Madhavsinh Solanki, who was the chief minister of Gujarat four times and came to power in the 1980s with his support base and theory of KHAM – Khastriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim. This led other communities to lose political significance, one being the Patels. As a backlash, the period witnessed two major anti-reservation movements, one between 1976-80 and second in 1985, giving way to the BJP which had already started to unite all higher castes under the Hindutva umbrella.” those 

“The Congress now is doing what BJP had done then – trying to encash on the ire of the Patels after an anti-reservation movement. However, the Patel vote bank may not suddenly fall in favour of the Congress. The Patels are politically divided. While the younger generation of Patels who seem to have been influenced by Hardik Patel may go against the BJP, there are still some among the older generation who are loyal BJP voters and might not change sides,” added Yagnik. 

Interestingly, Gandhi refrained from talking about the quota stir at the Mehsana rally, except for stating that the Patidar youth and women were protesting peacefully but the state government got the police to lathi-charge them.

Gandhi limited himself to attacking Modi on demonetisation, remarking, “Demonetisation has broken the backbones of farmers in the country who do not pay or deal in card or cheque but only in cash.” 

He also said that Modi has handed over 60% of the country’s resources to 50 families who are in Australia – a curious amalgamation of different allegations he has been making, all rolled into one.

In a 45-minute speech, he also raised the case of Mallya and accused Modi of receiving funds from the Sahara and Birla conglomerates when he was chief minister of Gujarat. 

“Rahul Gandhi’s visit may not make much of a difference in the polemics of Gujarati politics but it will certainly bring the party into pre-election momentum and may keep the intra-party differences between factions at bay before elections,” said Yagnik. 

The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) spokesperson stated that Gandhi is scheduled to visit south Gujarat next, to gear up the party workers. “Congress has already folded up its sleeve in the state and is preparing for upcoming elections,” said GPCC spokesperson Manish Doshi. 

The BJP, on its part, took a dig at Congress on the issue. “The more he [Rahul Gandhi] campaigns in the state, the better is it for the BJP,” BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said.  

Prime minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Deesa in Gujarat recently. Credit: Reuters/Files

Prime minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Deesa in Gujarat recently. Credit: Reuters/Files

However, with Prime Minister Modi visiting Deesa, a town in Banaskatha district (about 100 kilometres from Mehsana) about a fortnight back to address a farmers rally, the BJP does not seem to be laid back about the upcoming elections. Noticeably, Deesa is an adivasi  dominated area in north Gujarat. When the traditional vote bank of the Patels seems divided, the BJP rally might be a move to tap into a non-traditional vote bank. 

“BJP has been toughing out multiple movements since 2015 with the Patidar Anamat Aandolan lead by Hardik Patel, shaking the traditional vote base that had kept the party in power since 1995. With the Dalit movement this year, the embattled BJP anointed Vijay Rupani as its new chief minister replacing Anandiben Patel while the party high command seemingly gave marching orders to her. Dalits, though, are just 7% of the population and may not make any difference in voting pattern,” said Yagnik. 

Interestingly, with Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Surat in October this year – the business headquarters of south Gujarat and another Patel dominated area – it seems AAP is also planning to join the fray. With both Congress and AAP trying to draw in the Patels, a sizeable number of Patidar votes might not fall into the BJP fold. 

To placate the angry Patels, the BJP had appointed Nitin Patel, then health minister, a karva patidar from Mehsana, to be the deputy chief minister. Patel who was considered second only to Anandiben Patel in the previous ministry could not stand up to expectations and failed to handle the Patidar issue.  

Instead, the baton was passed to Vijay Rupani, a Jain leader from Rajkot even though Jains are just 1% of the total population of the state. 

Gujarat Has Started the Process of Disowning Modi

Future historians may trace the political meltdown of Narendra Modi to the events this week in Ahmedabad and the rest of Gujarat

Future historians may trace the political meltdown of Narendra Modi to the events this week in Ahmedabad and the rest of Gujarat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday appeals for peace in Gujarat, says violence does not benefit anybody. Credit: PTI Photo/TV Grab

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday appeals for peace in Gujarat, says violence does not benefit anybody. Credit: PTI Photo/TV Grab

Being the very smart man that he is, Narendra Modi will be the first to recognise — even if he does not acknowledge it publicly — that August 25, 2015, is the day when Gujarat finally started the process of disowning him. Future historians may even mark August 25 as the date when it all unravelled and the Modi political meltdown began. An over-statement? An exaggeration? A wishful fantasy?

Consider this: from March 2002 to August 24, 2015, nobody, and that means nobody, other than Narendra Modi had been able to collect a crowd of five lakh people in any part of Gujarat. The last time such a large-scale mobilisation took place was way back in the mid-1970s, during the days of the Navnirman Andolan. The August 25 congregation, right there in the heart of Ahmedabad, took place despite Modi’s wishes and his long-distance monitoring and micro-managing of everything political that goes on in Gujarat. And, not since 2002, has the Army been asked to come out in aid of the civil authority. Words in headlines like ‘curfew’, ‘police firing’, ‘deaths’ belonged to a bygone era, so we were told. The rockstar who mesmerised the suburban Gujaratis at Madison Square Garden has been upstaged by an upstart: a hitherto unknown Hardik Patel, who has the native Patels eating out of his hand.

It is ironic that only 10 days ago, on Independence Day, the Prime Minister was using that grand pulpit at the Red Fort to exhort us to beware of the danger of ‘casteism’ and communalism. And then, a few days later, he was in Gaya, Bihar, showering goodies and special packages on that “bimaru” state, singing songs of his own politics of development, and preaching against the vendors of caste politics such as Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav. Now, on his own home turf, the caste calculations and demands have erupted gloriously.

The backstory

There is a context to this Patel eruption. And, it is necessary to recall that context.

In 1981, it was the Patels of Khadia in downtown Ahmedabad who raised a violent voice against a new reservation regime. That agitation was directed at the newly elected Congress government, headed by Madhavsinh Solanki. The Congress had stormed back to power, riding on the KHAM strategy. The KHAM—Kshatriyas, Harijans, Adivasis, and Muslims—inclusive promise had yielded massive electoral dividends and Gujarat’s political landscape was drastically re-arranged. The Patels were ejected from the commanding heights of Gujarat politics which they had occupied for many decades. In the 1985 Assembly elections, the Congress repeated its performance, consolidating its political dominance. The Patels again soon found an excuse to raise their voice against ‘reservation’. This resentment among the upper castes, especially the Patidars, was easily shoehorned into the new Hindutva project. Over the years, the Hindutva forces patted themselves on the back for their ability to invoke the religious idiom to get the better of the caste-centric KHAM and its inclusive politics of social aggregation of the disadvantaged.

Now, the same Patels are demanding reservation. Gujarat is back to the 1981 days.

The end of the post-2002 era

The Patels were and are at the core of the Modi constituency. They are vocal, aggressive and assertive in their sustained support at home and in the NRI portals for the post-2002 Modi and his narrative.

 

The post-2002 Modi and BJP were able to enlist, enthuse and ensnare the Gujaratis in an epic battle in defence of Gujarati asmita. The Patidars applauded the new Hindu hriday samraat, first as he struggled against Vajpayee who chanted the strange mantra of  rajdharma. Then they cheered him as he locked horns with a Sonia Gandhi who levelled the maut ka saudagar charge, and next they sided with him against the ‘vicious’ UPA that would demand accountability in fake encounters.

The Long March to Delhi ended on a triumphant note. The Hindu hriday samraat is the lord and master of all he surveys from Raisina Hill, the pseudo-secularists are licking their wounds, and even the judiciary seems disinclined to uphold secular values and practices. The majority in Gujarat has nothing to fear. Its ‘protector’ is the chief magistrate and sheriff. The intimidated Muslims have already retreated into their pitiful ghettos.

The eruption in 2015 of Patidar violence from the same BJP strongholds of 2002 suggests that the objective conditions that propelled the Modi phenomenon in Gujarat became redundant with his election victory on May 16, 2014. Suddenly, the objective conditions that sustained the Modi phenomenon have melted away.  In pure realpolitik terms, the ‘2002’ business has finally lost its power and raison d’etre. Even anti-Centrism, the main plank of the Modi phenomenon in Gujarat, got dismantled on May 24, 2014, when the new Prime Minister took his oath of office in the Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt.

What’s left of the Gujarat model

The all too obvious communal underpinning of the Modi project apart, the Patidar eruption demands a sober reassessment of all that we have been persuaded to believe about the Gujarat model of development.

The thinness of the so-called Gujarat model now stands so demonstratively exposed. Those who questioned the claims made in its name were dubbed anti-Gujarat and damned as pseudo-secularists. The pain of deepening economic inequalities was never allowed to intrude into the ‘vibrancy’ optics. Rather, those at the receiving end of the harsh economic realities were palmed off with the Hindutva rhetoric and practices. Those realities have not vanished.

Nobody, for example, was allowed to ask how many local Gujaratis had been given jobs in the famed Nano project at Sanand. For that matter, no one knows the terms of the agreement between the Gujarat government and the Tatas. All we have been told is how a pro-business, pro-market, pro-growth, pro-industrialisation Chief Minister had grabbed the opportunity to entice an entrepreneur, scorned by those backward looking politicians in West Bengal. That was the defining moment when the ‘vibrancy’ of the Modi model was reaffirmed and consecrated. Soon the captains of industry were queuing up in Ahmedabad to issue the certificate of good conduct to the then Chief Minister. The road to Delhi was mapped out.

Before and after 2014, there was no dearth of cheer-leaders extolling the Modi phenomenon and its relevance, demanding that it be replicated throughout the country. The best and the brightest among the pundits proclaimed that India stood tutored in the new grammar of development, merit, growth, liberating modernity. An alternative reality emerged on August 25.

If the Gujarat model of development was so successful, so transformative, so revolutionary, how could a 22-year-old become the fulcrum for a caste-centric mobilisation? And why should Bihar buy into the presumably post-caste ‘development’ rhetoric?

Harish Khare is Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune

Courtesy: The Tribune