Anti-Vibrant Gujarat protest fizzles out with arrest of Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, farmer activist Sagar Rabari

Mevani supporters detained at Adalaj

By A Representative
Anti-Narendra Modi protest against the Vibrant Gujarat world business summit, planned by top Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani with last-hour help of Sagar Rabari of the Khedut Samaj Gujarat, a non-political farmers' organizations, fizzled out on Tuesday, with the detention of the two leaders. A dozen of their supporters were also detained at Adalaj, the spot "fixed" for starting the protest.
The two leaders were picked up from the residence at about 7 am in the morning, much before they could start their journey to reach the spot where the protest was to begin – Adalaj, about 10 kilometres from the Mahatma Mandir in Gujarat capital, Gandhinagar,where the Vibrant Gujarat business meet began on Tuesday.
Mevani, after taking Rabari's support, had announced on Monday that he would “disrupt” the high profile business summit. The Patels' pro-quota organization owing allegiance to young leader Hardik Patel, Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, also declared support to Mevani.
The Vibrant Gujarat summit was inaugurated by the Prime Minister at Mahatma Mandir. There was strong police picket along all roads leading to Gandhinagar, anticipating the protest. Opposition political parties, including Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, kept themselves away from the move to disrupt the summit.
The two leaders were taken to the Gujarat University police station. Mevani had announced at that he, along with Rabari and other supporters, would start their protest at 12 noon to reach the Vibrant Summit site.
The police claimed they arrested the two leaders – convener of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch and general secretary of the Khedut Samaj Gujarat, respectively – for “violation” of the police commissioner’s notification under section-144 of CrPC, which prohibits rally or any public meeting of more than four persons.
The detentions took place following sharp differences surfacing between two main leaders who had planned to protest against the Vibrant Gujarat business summit – Alpesh Thakore, who has emerged as a top other backward caste (OBC) mobilizer in the recent past, and Mevani.
First Thakore went ahead with a separate rally early this month in Ahmedabad against the Gujarat government's “failure” to give employment to local people. Then, following talks with government officials, he declared his decision to withdraw his support to Mevani, as was “assured” that Gujaratis would get 85 per cent reservation in jobs.
This invited ire from the Dalit leadership, which wondered whether he was “afraid” of being arrested or there was some secret agreement with the state government.
On being detained, Mevani, in a WhatsApp message, said he had been “arrested by Gujarat police for announcing to disrupt the vibrant Gujarat summit”, which he termed “a fraud”. He added, farmers', Patidar leader and Dalits leaders all have been arrested.
He further said, there is “no scope” of doing any peaceful demonstration here in Gujarat, of asking Modi how many jobs he had create through these vibrant Gujarat summits. If one asks him why fertile land of farmers was being handed over to industries, one would be dubbed “anti-development”, he added.
Mevani wondered, whether land was available for "business groups and corporate giants, but not for Dalits and tribals, or other landless people." Mevani and Rabari were released at 10.00 pm at night.
In a separate development, around 100 fixed pay employees working with state government offices were detained in Gandhinagar as they tried to organize protest against the Vibrant Gujarat summit.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

Search This Blog