Next stop is Jantar Mantar, will take quota demand across country, Hardik Patel says

NEW DELHI: After successfully mobilizing a massive show of strength in Ahmedabad, Patel quota stir leader Hardik Patel has said his next stop is Jantar Mantar as he plans to take his demand across the country by organizing rallies to bring the “Patel-Kurmi” samaj together.
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Though he did not spell out the schedule for rallies in Delhi and Lucknow, the stocky Patel leader from Gujarat told TOI that the agitation to include the influential, landholding community in the list of other backward castes (OBC) will not be rolled back until the government accepted the demand.
“The current reservation policy is hollowing out our samaj. We studied our issues over the past 10 years and saw how thousands of farmers committed suicide. We found a large number of unemployed youth had committed suicide. People got good degrees but no jobs,” he said, explaining his motivation in taking up the Patel cause.
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He was not forthcoming on how Patels, who are among the more prosperous land owning communities, could claim quotas and whether the demand would generate a backlash from those in the OBC bracket and others who are less well-off. Avoiding complexities, he stuck to arguing that Patels were contending with diminishing land holdings and were losing out to castes benefiting from quotas.

“If the Supreme Court can listen to a plea for a terrorist at 3.30am in the night, why can’t the Constitution be amended for lakhs of people with a genuine demand?” he said. “We started our stir on July 6, 2015 from Mehsana with three or four thousand people and today I am connected with more than 70 lakh people.”
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Patel denied being backed by any political force and brushed off suggestions that VHP leader Pravin Togadia was assisting the agitation. He did not retreat from his earlier controversial endorsement of MNS leader Raj Thackeray, saying he liked the Mumbai politician’s style. “I like Modi on national security … I like his kurta too. I have spoken of Nitish Kumar too,” he said, arguing that his preferences were not limited to leaders of a particular political hue.
He ducked questions on whether the success of the Patel rally in Ahmedabad was evidence that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Gujarat model had failed.
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