Young dalit leader Jignesh Mevani on Tuesday was arrested from his residence in Ahmedabad to prevent him from carrying out his threat of taking out a rally along with Patidar leaders from Adalaj near Gandhinagar to Mahatma Mandir, the venue of Vibrant Gujarat 2017.
On social media Mevani said that he was arrested by police for announcing to disrupt Vibrant Gujarat summit. “With farmers’ leader, Patidar leader and dalits all arrested was no scope of doing peaceful demonstration,” he said.
“If we ask Modiji, how much jobs you could create through this Vibrant Gujarat summit then there is no answer, if we say why fertile land of farmers is handed over to industries then, they dub us as anti-development. land is available for business groups and corporate giants but not for dalits and tribals, not for landless class,” said Mevani.
While Mevani has been leading dalits after public flogging of four dalit youths in Una last July, seeking physical possession of land to dalits who had earlier been officially allotted land by the state government, among other demands for dalits.
The rally on Tuesday, that was announced by leader of OBC Alpesh Thakor, however saw exit of Alpesh after a meeting with senior officials of the state government.
Alpesh had led a massive 200-km "berojgar rally" (unemployment rally) from Bechraji in North Gujarat to Ahmedabad last week. He had threatened to even stop the convoy of Prime Minister during Vibrant event, claiming that Gujarat Government's record on providing jobs was not good.