"Stop this violence and bring back normalcy to our city and State," former Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt advised Hardik Patel, the youth who led the massive 'Kranti rally' in Ahmedabad on Tuesday demanding reservations for the Patel community. The rally held at GMDC ground in Ahmedabad, turned violent after Hardik's detention, resulting in three deaths and widespread destruction of property.
Bhatt criticised Hardik for demanding what was once condemned by his community. "One thing I clearly don't understand is, if you think reservations are a problem, why are you asking for it? In a television interview you said that the government should either give reservation to the patidars or remove reservation all together. This is like saying - Give me a piece of the cake or throw the entire cake away," Bhatt wrote in a Facebook post that was later credited to Apoorv Shah.
The former senior police officer slammed Hardik for using the State machineries to fulfil his purpose. "You were given permission to use the GMDC ground till a particular time. At 8pm, when the police asked you to vacate the government property, why did you not agree? Why are there photos and videos of your fellow patidars shouting slogans and destroying public property? Doesn't the government have the right to ask you to move out after the permission expires?" he wrote.
Bhatt further mocked at their claims of belonging to an economically weaker section. "It was also great amusing to see people come in really expensive cars to your rally and then claim to be 'under priviledged'. As a lot of people have noted, a 'show of strength' to prove that you are one of the 'weaker castes' is hilariously ironic. If the money spent in organising this rally was used to help the poor brethren of your community, some of them would definitely have benefited," Bhatt wrote.
He further advised Hardik to stop the violence and take up the reservation issue peacefully. "I hope you use your power to bring positive change in the country. Youth in India rarely get this chance, don't spoil it for the rest of us. Don't malign the reputation of your community/city/State. I don't know what is your understanding with the Government of the day and who is driving this agitation and why, but if you ever start a genuine and non-violent campaign to revisit the issue of reservations, most of us will stand by you. For now, lets stop this violence and bring back normalcy to our city and state," he added.
Bhatt had modified the open letter, 'My Two Cents', by Shah and posted it on his Facebook profile without citing the source as he "could not trace" the article to Shah while posting it. After some of Shah's friends informed Bhatt about the authorship, he duly credited the post, dated 26 August, but later removed it.
Bhatt, however, reposted the "letter to Hardik" with due credits on Friday.
"This letter is a modified version of a brilliant letter written by my young friend, Apoorv Shah. The insinuations and innuendos in this modified version of the letter are entirely mine. The original letter is available on his blog My Two Cents. (http://www.mytwocents.co.in/.../an-open-letter-to-mr-hardik-p...)," Bhatt wrote in the new post.
Read the full text of the post here.
