A year before the state of Gujarat goes to polls, Vijay Rupani resigned as its Chief Minister on September 11. Rupani told the media that the decision was taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the “larger interest of Gujarat” adding, “With my resignation, the party’s new leadership will get an opportunity. And we will all take Gujarat to new heights under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” 

Gujarat CM #Vijayrupani has resigned

— Organiser Weekly (@eOrganiser) September 11, 2021

He met the media outside Raj Bhavan shortly after tendering his resignation to Governor Acharya Devavrat. This coincidentally came hours after Rupani extended birthday greetings to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. 

श्रेष्ठ संगठक, प्रखर विचारक एवं विश्वके सबसे बड़े स्वयंसेवी संगठन @RSSorg के पूजनीय सरसंघचालक श्री @DrMohanBhagwat जी को जन्मदिनकी हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं।

राष्ट्र-समाज के नवनिर्माण में आपका सहयोग व समर्पण अविस्मरणीय है।ईश्वर से आपके उत्तम स्वास्थ्य व दीर्घायु जीवन की कामना करता हूं।

— Vijay Rupani (@vijayrupanibjp) September 11, 2021

Rupani, has maintained that he has stepped down willingly from the CM’s post, and called it a “natural process in our party. The party worker gets different responsibilities at different times. We do not call it a post, we call it a responsibility. Now, I will shoulder whatever responsibility the party gives me.” According to a report in the Indian Express he called it a “relay race. Everybody runs and moves ahead. I had the responsibility for five years. I was running. Now, I will give the flag to someone else. (Now) He will run” 

However, it is clear that Rupani has had no choice in the matter and has been told to follow the orders from the top. Rupani told the media that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was the face of the party, and that the Gujarat Assembly elections due in December 2022, will be fought under the PM’s leadership. According to the report, Rupani’s resigned hours after “attending the ground breaking ceremony of an educational complex of the Patidar community on the outskirts of Gandhinagar. PM Modi had made a virtual address at the event.” Reports are suggesting that there was pressure from Patidars that the next chief minister of Gujarat should be from their community.

Meanwhile, names of Gujarat’s Deputy CM Nitin Patel as well as state BJP president CR Paatil have begun doing the rounds, as possible candidates for the CM’s job. Recently Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel was in the news for making controversial statements about the Constitution, and secularism. As reported by Indian Express and other media he was speaking at the Bharat Mata Mandir in Gandhinagar, during the idol installation ceremony, organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and said, “In our country, some people talk about the Constitution, secularism. But I tell you, and if you want to video record this, then do it…Note down my words. Those talking about the Constitution, secularism, law etc will do so only till Hindus are in majority in this country… The day… the number of Hindus decreases, of others’ increases, [there will be] no secularism, no Lok Sabha, no Constitution. Everything will be (tossed) in the air and buried. Nothing will remain.”

BJP president CR Paatil too was in the news for urging co-operative leaders in Gandhinagar to participate in planting 71 lakh trees in the state as part of celebration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday. According to Indian Express “Paatil sought participation of cooperative bodies in celebrations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on 17th September and helped achieve the target of planting 71 lakh trees during a pan-state simultaneous tree plantation drive. He appealed to cooperative leaders to make Modi’s birthday memorable by taking up this task of environment conservation.”

For the now ex-CM Rupani, social media users aligning with the Opposition began reminding everyone that his biggest ‘achievement’ was renaming the Dragon Fruit as  ‘Kamalam’ in Gujarat. In January Vijay Rupani had announced, “The State government has decided to rename Dragon Fruit. As the outer shape of the fruit resembles a lotus, hence Dragon Fruit shall be renamed as Kamalam.”

Biggest achievement of @vijayrupanibjp’s public life:

Renaming “Dragon Fruit” as “Kamalam”. ?#VijayRupani #Gujarat pic.twitter.com/RriSUAuz4V

— Saral Patel (@SaralPatel) September 11, 2021

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The post Gujarat: CM Vijay Rupani quits, just a year ahead of polls appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The protest was organised to meet the demands of the deceased, BhanubhaiVankar’s family. Their demands included allotment of land, action against the guilty officials and formation of a special investigation team to probe his death. A member of the Rashtriya Dalit AdhikarManch,Vankar has set himself on fire on February 15, 2018 protesting against the apathy of the Gujarat government towards demands of land for two Dalit labourers. The labourers alleged that the authorities refused to regularize the land allotment despite collecting Rs. 22,236 in 2013. This  struggle for land, on for several months, had met with no response from the government. Vankar’s body was taken to the Sola Civil Hospital for the post-mortem and it was lying there for two days. His family collected his body only today after the Gujarat administration gave a written assurance to the family that their demands would be fulfilled as per a report by PTI.

Image Courtesy: Indian Express

As a response to Bhanu Vankar’s death, Mevani and other leaders from Dalit community in Gujarat had given a call for a Bandh in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. A peaceful rally was also announced from Sarangpur on February 18. The police refused to give permissions for the rally but the outraged citizens decided to go ahead with the peaceful protest.

As Mevani reached the site of protest at around 9 am on the morning of February 18, the police tried to forcefully detain him. A video that surfaced later showed the brutality (and uncouthness) with which the MLA was treated. JigneshMevani’s official twitter handle tweeted, “Is this a way to detain an elected MLA? If a legislator is in this condition, then think about any Dalit’s situation in Gujarat.

#BJPAgainstDalit”
https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/965164954734260225

Media reports suggest that this is the second largest protest after protests broke out the aftermath of Una incident in July 2016. Apart from Jignesh, Patel Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Hardik Patel, Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor and Congress leader of the Opposition, Paresh Dhanani came together to support of Bhanuji’s family.

At a press conference held after the arrests, joint police commissioner (crime branch) J.K. Bhatt made the dubious claim that Mevani was misbehaving with officials and did not co-operate. The video showed however that Mevani’s agitation grew as he was being mis-treated. Mehul Manguben, a Dalit activist said, “We were protesting peacefully but the police used force in which two people got injured and have been hospitalized. The police it seems is working on the directive of the state government. If the government is so serious about our demands, why does it not issue a written directive or meet the family and assure them support. The ruling government wants us to end our protests so they do not face any embarrassment in the assembly session,”

The Una movement and Jignesh Mevani’s leadership along with many others brought once again to the fore, the issue of land rights as central to the question of caste annihilation. The community leaders demanded 5 acres of land for every landless Dalit family as per the Gujarat Land Ceiling Act. The movement popularised the slogan, “Gai ki dum aap rakho, humein hamari zameen de do (You can keep the cow’s tail, we want our land back)”

Another Dalit rights activist, Martin Mackwan said, “Of the 3.75 million acres of land to be distributed to Dalits and Tribals, only one-third of this land has been distributed in all these years. While a lot of this land is encroached, many Dalits who have got land entitlements are not getting possession and forced to work as labourers in their own fields. In Surendranagar district, we had to fight for eight years to get 6,000 acres of land for Dalits and it was only after the high court’s intervention that it was done”

The Budget session of the Gujarat assembly is scheduled to start on Monday. It is likely that the issue will create a lot of uproar. Moreover, the state of Gujarat has been in a constant state of turmoil for about 2-3 years now on the question of annihilation of caste and government’s inability to bridge the gap through policy measures is becoming more evident by the day. One can only hope that the state of affairs is likely to see a radical shift through people’s struggles and movements.

Related Articles:

1. Land to the Dalit Tiller, not to Tycoons is our Mission: Jignesh Mevani

2. How Hate BuildsAn account of speeches inciting hate in light of FIRs on Umar Khalid and Jignesh Mevani
3. The New Opposition at the Barricades Challenges Manuvaad & the Market
4. Dalit Freedom March, Azaadi Kooch to Continue even as Guj Govt Cancels Permission
 
 
 
 

The post Large Scale Protests Erupt across Gujarat after Dalit Man Immolates Self appeared first on SabrangIndia.

“We have witnessed about this giant, controversial dam during last 32 years and once again will experience on this special occasion which needs to be dissected and exposed; since the plan of ‘Dedicating the Dam to the Nation’, all the people across the country must know the truth through the response from the people of Narmada Valley that follows-

Serious Questions about Official ‘Misinfromation’
First and the foremost, how has Rupani calculated a period of 56 years since the laying of the foundation stone for today’s Sardar Sarovar Dam? The foundation stone laid by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was not for the Dam of today, it was for a much smaller dam of 162 feet height.

The present dam, a result of the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal Award (NWDTA) is 455 feet i.e. 138.68 meters high, declared by the Tribunal after 10 years long enquiry into the serious conflict among 3 riparian states, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It was all party (then Jan Sangh and Congress) opposition in Madhya Pradesh that had questioned and challenged through even violent resistance, that got settled as NWDTA is considered to be a decree, i.e. law. 

However, the Dam is still not the country’s highest dam or a world’s second biggest dam, claims made only on the basis of the volume of concrete going into the Dam. It is one of the biggest, no doubt and the decision on the same came in December 1979, the date of the Declaration of the Award (NWDTA), not in 1961.

Even after the Award the work on the same was soon stopped and the clearance to it, following River valley guidelines of 1993 and Environmental Protection Act, 1986, came only in June 1987. The said clearance too was conditional since studies and plans on not less than 8 critical aspects of the project were not conducted nor completed till then. Those included rehabilitation, Flora and Fauna, seismic risks, catchment area treatment, command area development, downstream impacts.

Mr. Rupani obviously hasn’t looked into either data or documents related to each of these, concerning all 3 states with the non-riparian state of Rajasthan and the union of India as monitoring government with certain powers when he refers to the benefits of the Dam, he makes a serious mistake in saying that Maharashtra is to get 56% and Madhya Pradesh, 27% of the electricity to be generated, which is exactly the opposite, indicating the CM’s ignorance.

 There is no mention of the firm confirmed power to be generated and only mentioning the capacity, obviously since the benefit shares are only out of whatever is actually generated and not the planned capacity.
There is no share in water benefit to either Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh, who are to pay the biggest cost in losing best of land, fresh and most tragically, affecting lakhs of people in 244 villages and 1 township. This is what is not noted in the CM’s statement, as is always forgotten by Gujarat and forgiven by his counter parts in other 2 states.

The scale of irrigation and drinking water supply in Gujarat and Rajasthan is certainly exaggerated, as can be proved, says the statement.

Official statistics on irrigation reveal and show a big failure till date, not because of the stoppage of the Dam work for genuine social, environmental reasons, but mismanagement and manipulations to favour industries at the cost of farmers and drought affected in Gujarat. Even when waters were impounded up to 121.92 meters, Gujarat didn’t take it into the canal network which was left incomplete and has more than 50% balance even today. Whatever it did, was lost to sea via Sabarmati giving light and sound show due to no way to take to fields without canals, nor to be stored!

 This irrigation scandal is fully exposed through a detailed statement by none else but the former chief minister of Gujarat Suresh Mehta. It is less than 3 lakh hectares when at least 8 to 10 lakh was expected at 121.92 meters dam height just because it has no priority for the commercial state!

How many villages in Gujarat is the dam going to supply drinking water? The number changes from para to para in this single statement, from 9000-9663! Remembering the past, let people of Gujarat and Bharat know that the figure has changed from 4200+ to 8000+ and now to 9000+, always including more than 240 barren villages with no habitation to drink the water, even if supplied!

Which are the 131 urban centres to get this benefit, we must know along with how much of their thirst saturated till date? If it was only 0.86 million cubic feet for drinking water, it means out of 1.6 MAF, the share for municipal and industrial water, let there be the latest allocation details coming in from the official sources! People of Gujarat are in the dark about the agreements made with Coca Cola, car industries (to include new Suzuki plant, thanks to the visit by Japanese Premier), Adani’s and Ambani’s projects and all the industrial estates to come up in Gujarat as a part of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor full of investment regions covering 60% of Gujarat with Huge costs to farmers! Who will exhibit the real costs and real benefits & when?

Moreover, it’s an absolutely false contention that Maharashtra is also to be get 37500 hectares of irrigation from Sardar Sarovar Dam. This is the benefit Maharashtra may get out of its own rainfall & water flows in its Narmada catchment, not from the Sardar Sarovar Reservoir. Maharashtra has no benefit of water from the dam after losing 33 adivasi communities.

The biggest lie and unscientific claims is to say that 18 lakh hectares of land in Gujarat will be irrigated, with the inauguration of the project, as Narmada water will flow to over 9000 villages of Gujarat through a canal network. Does the network to that extent, exist today when at least 41000 kms long network to take water to village and fields doesn’t  exist. Thanks to Modi Government in Gujarat that totally ignored this aspect, while merely blaming the opposition, inside and outside the electoral politics for stalling the Dam project.

It’s revealing that even on the eve of the irrigation, neither the CM nor the PM have shown any sensitivity to the huge number of the adivasis, farmers fishworkers and labour who are compelled to sacrifice for the project. They may not have nor the realistic information to be shared with the Nation.

There are about 40000 families still in the submergence area, beyond the game of numbers played by the governments of Madhya Pradesh at times to extent, Maharashtra and the union authorities.

Not just the serious lapses but large-scale corruption and violation of the laws, policies and court judgments up to the apex court, especially in Madhya Pradesh have been totally ignored by even Modi Ji since it’s not congress but his own party – BJP – government in power in Madhya Pradesh. If it was the other, he would not have left any stone unturned, in exposing them. Will he take pains to read Justice Jha Commission report and not bluff but act against the corrupt officials and agents in action even today?

And what about the ex-prime minister’s taking a position against pushing the construction of the Dam without rehabilitation of thousands of families, mandatory under law. Mr. Manmohan Singh had given a written commitment to the Supreme Court on this, on April 17, 2006. Mr. Rupani was not in the picture then, rather if I remember correctly, he was claiming that Gujarat can use its total water share through a pipeline project, without destruction of land, if NRIs support it financially.

Was the stand taken by UPA government, which too had faced our 21 days of fast and 51 hours five star fast by the Prime Minister, anyway illegal or unjust. Mr. Rupani, it’s shameful and not a matter of pride that Mr. Modi took a decision to push the Dam height to 138.68 meters beyond 121.92 meters where it was stayed, within 17 days after coming into Government? 

 He didn’t just ignore his ministers like as Uma Bharti and Mr. Gehlot, both from Madhya Pradesh but also the shockingly dense populations with thousands of houses, prime agriculture and horticulture, a few thousand temples and tens of mosques, a million (at least) trees and the total infrastructure, ages and generations old that is to be submerged or affected at the full height that he is to boast of!

The absolute callousness shown to even the tribal oustees of Gujarat on the path of agitation even today is equally exhibitory of the experience of ours over 32 years. The violation of the supreme court judgement’s on Rehabilitation as well as environmental measures, destruction of ecosystem and natural resources, the loss of human history with pre-history archeological remnants not removed and stored, total neglect of compensatory and preventive environmental works all is to be the result of Modi’s inauguration and celebration which will not be before the Nation, until it all occurs.

The huge cost of Rs 99000 crores for the single project which was never honestly estimated will be a huge burden on the state of Gujarat and the countries exchequer, to be borne mainly for the industries, the capitalists pursuing it at all cost.

The Programme on the September 17, the birthday of PM is seen as the deadline or deathline for thousands and thousands fighting for justice with those sensitive and cautious of false propaganda and farce, beware of flawed developmental claims and model, demand an open public debate.

Or as Amit Shah (rather crudely )said “Gujarat ka Sher kisi sawal ka jawab nahi dega!”.   

Disclaimer: This is a statement issued by the National Alliance of People’s Movements and do not necessarily express the views of Sabrangindia
 
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1. URGENT APPEAL: Is the GOI Drowning the Narmada Valley to celebrate Modi’s Birthday?
2. Modi Birthday Celebrations at the Cost of Oustees of Narmada Dam?

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