The Patel community in Gujarat will court arrest en masse on Sunday in a bid to take their agitation for quotas in Mehsana, epicentre of the quota agitation, which was launched in July last and had become violent in August, forcing the State administration to call in Army and impose curfew. Two organisations — Sardar Patel Group (SPG) and Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) — have announced that their members and supporters from the community will gather in Mehsana and then move to the district jail to court arrest, demanding reservation benefits to the Patel community.
Meanwhile, Mehsana district administration has denied permission to hold any rally or public gathering for courting mass arrest and called it “illegal and anti-national.”
“The organisers had sought permission to allow them to court arrest. But permission has not been given as nobody can be allowed to go to jail forcefully,” Lochan Sehra, Mehsana collector, said.
Meanwhile, the organisers are adamant to carry out the agitation demanding reservation and also the release of Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel, who is facing two sedition case and has been in jail since last October.
“Our rally will be peaceful but we will go ahead with it,” said Purvin Patel of the SPG.
“For the past several months, the Gujarat government has been talking about compromise with the Patel community.
“We met the State government representatives and submitted a list of our demands with an ultimatum of one month. But the government has done nothing,” said Lalji Patel, head of the SPG.
“Our principal demand is quota in education and government jobs for our community,” Mr. Lalji Patel added.
