Amid the rising slogans “Jai Jawan (Hail Indian Soldiers), the ex-servicemen pressed the state government of Gujarat to accept their said demands and planned to return their ‘seva medals’ that they had received from the previous government.
Besides, a delegation consisting of a few ex-servicemen wrote a letter to the Governor to schedule a meeting.
They stated that the demands were not yet resolved even after meeting the Gujarat’s Minister of State for Home, Harsh Sanghavi twice.
A 72-year-old Army veteran, Kanjibhai, died during the mass protest on Tuesday, September 13, 2022 in Gandhinagar district. Following his death, family and colleagues of an ex-serviceman alleged that he was brutally beaten by the police and succumbed to injuries.
The ex-servicemen had proposed not to accept the veteran’s body at the Gandhinagar Civil Hospital, but after several requests made by the administration; the family finally took the body home.
The ex-servicemen’s union staged a sit-in protest at the Gandhinagar Secretariat. They sat near the pavement outside Gandhinagar assembly’s gate number one.
Soon, a meeting with the minister Sanghavi was fixed, but could not bring in any result. Following which, the ex-servicemen extended their sit-in protest seeking to fulfill their demands.
Subsequently, while carrying out the peaceful protest on Sunday today, a letter exemplifying the returning of ‘seva-medals’, awarded to them in the honour of their meritorious service was sent to the Governor of Gujarat Acharya Devvrat.
Nearly 50,000 ex-servicemen in Gujarat have put forward their 14-kinds of demands before the government.
Reportedly, until their demands are accepted in full, they will continue their 6-day long ongoing protest.
Earlier, on September 14, a candlelight march was held at Gandhinagar Assembly Gate by ex-servicemen, veterans and their family members to pay homage to 73-year-old ex-servicemen Kanjibhai Mothalia, who died during the mass protest a day before. The ex-servicemen claimed that their fellow-agitator died due to police excess. The association was demonstrating over their pending demands when they say the police had thrashed them up leading to Kanjibhai’s death.
Meanwhile, the Government had claimed that the ex-serviceman died of cardiac arrest.
