AHMEDABAD , India, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- The arrest of an Indian leader, eager to expand opportunities for the Patel class in India's caste system, sparked violent protest across Gujarat state.
Hardik Patel, 22, was arrested in Ahmedabad, the largest city in prosperous Gujarat, earlier this week. The unassuming water pump salesman, a fiery orator, has been the focus of protests involving the Patidar or Patel community to which he belongs, the dominant class of Gujarat government and society. He claims government-mandated reservation of 50 percent of government jobs to lower castes, a form of Indian affirmative action, puts his class at a disadvantage.
About 300,000 members of the Patel class attended one of his addresses in Ahmedabad Tuesday. "My sister completed her high school last year and scored very high marks. But she couldn't get a scholarship, whereas students from the castes that are part of the quota system got it with much lower marks. I was chatting with a few friends and everyone was talking about how even the meritorious amongst us fail to get into colleges or government jobs," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
While Patels include many prosperous business people and are plentiful in government, Hardik Patel says it is untrue that all in his class are rich.
"Only five to 10 percent of Patels are prosperous, that doesn't make the entire community rich. If you visit a village home in the Saurashra region, you'll see people don't have enough to eat. There are so many poor people. And if you look at the farmers who have killed themselves in the past 10 years, the largest numbers are from among the Patels," he claims.
Resentment against the class quota system is growing in India, and Hardik Patel has become the point person in the debate.
The entire community may be behind Hardik Patel, and I congratulate him for his political movement. but a political movement, even a wide-based political movement, may not necessarily result in constitutional recognition," noted Colin Gonsalves of the Human Rights Law network in New Delhi.
