With BJP leader Keshubhai Patel attending events organised by different politically significant castes in the state recently, speculation is rife that the former Gujarat chief minister is likely to lead an anti-Narendra Modi campaign here.
At a meeting of the Dalit Samaj on Saturday, Patel said the government’s claims of a “secure Gujarat” were shallow and the state’s population “was not feeling secured any longer.”
The veteran politician attended meetings of the Patel community in Saurashtra region on Saturday before participating in the Dalit Samaj convention where he launched a scathing attack on the Modi government.
“In Ahmedabad today, organised gangs loot passengers in broad daylight. Whether you are in a rickshaw, bus, train or at your home, you don’t feel safe. What secure Gujarat are you talking about,’’ fumed Patel.
In earlier meetings of the Patel community, he had claimed that “the Patels are living under fear.”
Taking a dig at his bete-noire Modi’s “Sadhbhavna Yatra” and other government programmes, the former chief minister alleged that people were being “forcibly taken to government events.”
“Putting to inconvenience lakhs of commuters, state transport buses are forcibly used to ferry people to the government events. You cannot win love of the people by transporting them free of cost to these events. You have to earn that love,’’ Patel said.
Patel, who was ousted as the chief minister in 2001 to make way for Narendra Modi, even raised the issue of top cops in the state revealing Modi’s role in the post-Godhra riots.
“IPS and IAS officers who are standing firm for truth are being suppressed. There is a phase of suppression going on. I have a long list of such suppressive acts,’’ he claimed.
“Even I had the sword of power but I knew how to use that sword and not just brandish it,” Patel said.
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