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Is government behind the smear campaign against Hardik Patel?

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Kumar Shakti Shekhar
Kumar Shakti ShekharSep 02, 2015 | 18:35

Is government behind the smear campaign against Hardik Patel?

The young Patidar from Gujarat, Hardik Patel, instantly rose to fame nationally by holding an agitation in Ahmedabad on August 25 under the banner of Patel Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) to demand reservation for Patels in the OBC category. The rally turned violent by the time it ended, killing nine people and damaging property worth crores, forcing the Gujarat government to summon eight columns of Army. While the agitation worried the Anandiben Patel government, Hardik got emboldened by the impressive turnout and the statewide response he received.

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Riding on this unexpected popularity, Hardik now wishes to scale up his agitation to national level. He announced in the national capital on August 30 that the next "Patel-Kurmi" agitations will be held at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and in Lucknow. Several theories are already being speculated for the past few days. Who all are behind Hardik - Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal or Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar or BJP leaders themselves or a faction of RSS or VHP leader Pravin Togadia or Gujarat unit of Congress? Who are at his target - Anandiben or Prime Minister Narendra Modi or benefactors of the Mandal movement? What is Hardik's motive? Is his protest directed against the reservation system and in favour of quota system on economic criteria?

While these issues are still in the realm of conjectures, on another level a series of attempts is being made to discredit Hardik. Just a day after his Ahmedabad rally, several pictures were circulated on social media and instant messaging application WhatsApp of a man accompanying Kejriwal. Even though the man has a distant resemblance to young Patel, he was referred to as Hardik. The 22-year-old Gujarati activist has denied having met Kejriwal ever. The person who was being passed off as Hardik apparently is Rohit Pandey from Mainpuri district in Uttar Pradesh who drives Kejriwal's car. Going by the Twitter handle of @aaprohit, Rohit's bio description says: "A common man, who wants corruption-free India. I feel proud to drive car for #AK." On Facebook, he describes himself as "personal assistant to CM, Delhi at Delhi Secretariat (CM's office)".

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hardikone0209mbed_090215043154.jpg
A picture trying to project Hardik Patel's alleged proximity to Arvind Kejriwal. 
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A picture claiming the person driving Arvind Kejriwal's vehicle is Hardik Patel.

Stepping up the tirade against him, Hardik's detractors have now released a sleaze video clip on social media, which has now gone viral, to discredit him and his agitation. Even though it is not clear whether the person seen in the video is Hardik, the clip labels him as such. There is no word from Hardik as yet refuting or challenging the video clip but it surely has started bringing disrepute to him.

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The attempts to launch a smear campaign against Hardik's goes to prove the nervousness among those who could be the losers in case his agitation gathers momentum at the Gujarat or national level. As they say in Hindi, the "saam-daam-dand-bhed" (in short, by hook or by crook) tactic is being resorted to instead of fighting Hardik only on the ideological level.

Hardik is not the only one to be victimised with this discrediting tactics. When anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, Kejriwal and others launched the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement demanding legislation of Jan Lokpal Bill in 2011, they had met the same fate. Canards were spread against Hazare, Kejriwal, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, lawyers father-son duo Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, poet Kumar Vishwas, former Supreme Court judge Justice Santosh Hegde and others. On some occasions leaders of UPA, which was in power at Centre, and the principal opposition party BJP, which realised that the agitation will wean away the anti-establishment votes away from it, openly leveled accusations against some of the IAC leaders only to apologise later.

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Despite their best efforts to discredit them, neither Congress nor BJP could stop them and Kejriwal and IAC in their new avatars as politician and AAP respectively succeeded in forming government in Delhi. Now, it remains to be seen whether those feeling threatened by Hardik will be able to checkmate him or he will also be successful in accomplishing his mission, whatever it is.

Last updated: September 02, 2015 | 20:47
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