Prosperous Patel community is planning to take the ongoing agitation aimed at getting benefits of reservations in Other Backward Caste (OBC) quota from the State capital to national Capital.
Considered as socially as well as politically powerful community in Gujarat, Patels are all set to stage a rally in Delhi soon. According to the organisers of the Gandhinagar rally, which was held on Monday, till now the community members were agitating peacefully and walked on the path of Mahatma Gandhi, but would not hesitate to take Chadrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh’s ways if required.
“If our demand of giving reservation to Patels from OBC quota is not accepted by the authorities concerned in near future, we would march to Delhi and stage a huge rally and raise voices of Patels at the national Capital,” said Gaurang Patel, one of the organisers of the rallies for the community.
However, clarifying the stand of the community and purpose of the agitation, lD Patel, president of the Sardar Patel Sevadal Group said that the community is not against any Government — State as well as the Centre — and it is neither in favour of Opposition party (Congress). “We are concerned about the future of our educated youth,” he added.
Ever since the first rally organised by the Patidars on July 6 this year in Mehsana, the agitation is gradually getting stronger with many organisations controlled by Patels across the State have decided to support the movement. Till now, 30 rallies have already been organised in the State and 50 more have been planned at different locations ahead of the ‘Maha Rally’ in Ahmedabad planned on August 25. According to organisers, they have already reached nearly 30 lakh people from Patidar community and with the upcoming rallies, they are aiming to reach up to 1 crore Patels.
“We have planned to cover 15 districts in Gujarat ahead of Maha Rally. Of these 50 rallies, there would be big demonstration of strength at three other metros of Gujarat - Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot. The idea is to create awareness about the reservation to the community as well as to build opinion on the issue,” said the organisers.
“Of the Gujarat total population, Patels (all sub-castes) are nearly 13 per cent followed by Koli community which forms nearly 22 per cent. Even Rabari and Bharvad (shepherd community) too are nearly 20 per cent,” said social scientist Dr Vidyut Joshi, adding that as of now 69 per cent of the Gujarat’s total population is falling under OBC category. “Two major groups -- Koli and shepherds are already enjoying the benefits of OBC,” he said.
If Patels would be given OBC status, 82 per cent of the State population will be OBC and they all will have to fight against each other for 27.5 % OBC quota, says Joshi. Remaining upper castes including Kshatriya (6 %), Brahmin (3%), Bania (3 %) and others (1 %) are hardly 13 per cent.