Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar, on Thursday said that the agitation started in Gujarat by Hardik Patel for reservation has cautioned the leaders of all parties that this could be beginning of a ‘national political catastrophe’ which could pose the biggest threat to the Indian polity and the centuries old inter-community social fabric.
He said the drawing of huge crowds on the issues of reservation was a dangerous signal for the country which was currently struggling to become a world power. The former Himachal Chief Minister lamented that it was surprising that even the prosperous Patel community of Gujarat holding the highest positions in politics, business and services should agitate for reservations.
‘At present, Chief Minister, seven cabinet ministers and seven MPs and 30 percent MlAs were from the Patel community in Gujarat. In USA and European countries the richest persons were Patels and they were the owners of big 5-star hotels,’ he added.
In sharp contrast of envious affluence and prosperity of Patel community of Gujarat the converging of thousands of Gujarati youths on roads crying and shouting for reservation should not be viewed as an ordinary event, warned Shanta Kumar. Many other rich communities had been launching violent agitations across the country without merit in their demand thereby damaging the social fabric of the country and creating chaos and retarding the pace of development, he bemoaned.
Shanta Kumar said the stark reality, however, was that the poverty and unemployment was also rampant in other so-called high cast communities like Rajputs, Brahmins, Banias and others. Therefore, it could not be ruled out that if a prosperous Patel community came on the roads to agitate for reservations, why the left over casts would not follow them and sit silently at home.
Kumar said the only way to salvage the country from the fire of reservation from further engulfing the country was to arrive at a national consensus to give reservation on the basis of backwardness and poverty.