Farmer leaders detained in "combing operation" ahead of Maruti-Suzuki stone laying ceremony in Gujarat

Ahead of Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel’s stone-laying ceremony of the Maruti-Suzuki plant at Hansalpur in North Gujarat on Wednesday, the state police swooped on a dozen-odd farmer leaders apprehending that they would stage a protest. While one of them, Laljibhai Desai, was put under house arrest, others were detained. According to sources of the Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG), which for a year ago spearheaded an agitation against land acquisition at Hansalpur, the police told farmer activists that the arrests were “precautionary.”
JAAG sources said, cops approached Desai on Tuesday night at his farmhouse, situated about three kilometers from Hansalpur, telling him that he would have to be detained. “However, when Desai protested and sought reason, the cops became apprehensive, felt it might become a politically sensitive issue. When Desai gave in writing that there was no farmers’ protest, the cops left, only to return early on Wednesday, telling him that he was under house arrest”, said the sources.
“When Desai again protested and said he would go out to attend besna (condolence meeting) of a relative”, the sources said, “The police accompanied him for the time he went out, and returned with him. As for others, they were kept in detention for virtually the whole day, without providing any reason. One of them was picked up from his house, situated about 20 kilometers from Hansalpur, the spot where the car plant has been proposed.”
Previously in JAAG, ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Desai joined the Congress, but even today he is known more as a farmer activist. When contacted, a farmers’ leader, Sagar Rabari of the Gujarat Khedut Samaj leader, who is close to Desai, told Counterview, “This is not for the first time that the cops swooped on suspicion of protest, without citing any reason. There appears to be a clear sense unease in the establishment.”
Giving one example after another, Rabari said, “Every time the chief minister goes to the Narmada dam or the nearly areas, Lakhan Musafir is detained without citing a reason. Musafir is one of the farmer leaders who had led protests against the Gujarat government’s move to construct a weir across the river Narmada and the proposed Statue of Liberty, tallest in the world, in the memory of Sardar Patel, on the ground that farmers’ consent had not been obtained.”

Lalji Desai

In another instance, Rabari said, he was detained on January 8 apprehending a farmers’ protest rally against the Vibrant Gujarat summit. “As many as five police vans, with four senior cops, had come to catch me early in the morning, and without citing a reason I was taken away, though we had planned our protest on January 11 morning, and not on January 8, against the Vibrant Gujarat summit”, he added.
Then, Rabari pointed out, there was the infamous incident in which Indukumar Jani, a veteran Gandhian, was detained along with two other veterans – economist Prof Rohit Shukla and People’s Union for Civil Liberties general secretary Gautam Thaker, on January 11 morning, when they were driving on their way to the proposed farmers’ agitation at Adalaj, about six kilometers from the Vibrant Gujarat summit venue. They were going there as mere observers.
According to Rabari, “It has become a norm over the last several months not to give any permission to protests in Gujarat under one pretext or the other. If Vibrant Gujarat was the reason why permission was not granted recently, earlier, construction workers were not allowed to protest against the Adani township saying the state assembly session was on, hence there wasn’t enough police force to control the protesters.”
“Even on apprehensions of protests, activists are treated as criminals, picked up without citing reason”, said Rabari, adding, “In fact, one is reminded of the way in which, ahead of religious processions like Rath Yatra, anti-social elements are picked up in combing operations to ensure that there is no disturbance. All this suggests the type of model that Gujarat is seeking to project itself before the country.”

Comments

Irrational? Basis for fear among Hindus about being 'swamped' by Muslims

I was amused while reading an article titled "Ham Paanch, Hamare Pachees", shared on Facebook, by well-known policy analyst Mohan Guruswamy, an alumnus of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. Guruswamy, who has also worked as an advisor to the Finance Minister with the rank of Secretary to the Government of India, seeks to probe, as he himself states, "the supposed Muslim attitude to family planning"—a theme that was invoked by Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister ahead of the December 2002 assembly polls.

Why's Australian crackdown rattling Indian students? Whopping 25% fake visa applications

This is what happened several months ago. A teenager living in the housing society where I reside was sent to Australia to study at a university in Sydney with much fanfare. The parents, whom I often met as part of a group, would tell us how easily the boy got his admission with the help of "some well-meaning friends," adding that they had obtained an education loan to ensure he could study at a graduate school.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Gujarat slips in India Justice Report 2025: From model state to mid-table performer

Overall ranking in IJR reports The latest India Justice Report (IJR), prepared by legal experts with the backing of several civil society organisations and aimed at ranking the capacity of states to deliver justice, has found Gujarat—considered by India's rulers as a model state for others to follow—slipping to the 11th position from fourth in 2022.

Punishing senior citizens? Flipkart, Shopsy stop Cash on Delivery in Ahmedabad!

The other day, someone close to me attempted to order some goodies on Flipkart and its subsidiary Shopsy. After preparing a long list of items, this person, as usual, opted for the Cash on Delivery (popularly known as COD) option, as this senior citizen isn't very familiar with online prepaid payment methods like UPI, credit or debit cards, or online bank transfers through websites. In fact, she is hesitant to make online payments, fearing, "I may make a mistake," she explained, adding, "I read a lot about online frauds, so I always choose COD as it's safe. I have no knowledge of how to prepay online."

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Not just Haren Pandya, even Dhirubhai Shah, youngest assembly speaker, wanted to be Gujarat CM

Dhirubhai Shah with Keshubhai Patel When Keshubhai Patel was sought to be replaced by the BJP high command in 2001, everyone knows that Narendra Modi became the final choice. However, someone who was part of the top circles those days now tells me something I had no knowledge of—that the choice was between Modi and a Kutch MLA, Dhirubhai Shah, who served as the 16th Speaker from March 1998 to December 2002 during the 10th Assembly, the youngest to take the office.

Of lingering shadow of Haren Pandya's murder during Modi's Gujarat days

Sunita Williams’ return to Earth has, ironically, reopened an old wound: the mysterious murder of her first cousin, the popular BJP leader Haren Pandya, in 2003. Initially a supporter of Narendra Modi, Haren turned against him, not sparing any opportunity to do things that would embarrass Modi. Social media and some online news portals, including The Wire , are abuzz with how Modi’s recent invitation to Sunita to visit India comes against the backdrop of how he, as Gujarat’s chief minister, didn’t care to offer any official protocol support during her 2007 visit to Gujarat.

Area set aside in Ahmedabad for PM's affordable housing scheme 'has gone to big builders'

Following my article on affordable housing in Counterview, which quoted a top real estate consultant, I was informed that affordable housing—a scheme introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi—has deviated from its original intent. A former senior bureaucrat, whom I used to meet during my Sachivalaya days, told me that an entire area in Ahmedabad, designated for the scheme, has been used to construct costly houses instead.

Search This Blog