“Until we go to jail, some of our bones are broken and we shed blood from our head, people of Gujarat, youth of the state will believe that we are doing things for our own interests and not fighting for them. We will have to fight hard to win the trust of youths who have been suffering at the hands of the state for the past 27 years. We must start a people’s movement at village levels. We will launch a stir, we will go to jail and we will fight for the youth languishing in villages,” stated Gujarat Congress working president Hardik Patel on Friday.
He was speaking at a party Chintan Shibir (thought conclave) in Dwarka on Friday. Mr Patel called for launching an agitation over issues concerning people to win people’s trust and to bring about a revolution in order to unseat the Bharatiya Janata Party from power in the state.
Addressing the three-day event to ideate for a party manifesto in the upcoming Assembly elections later this year, Patel said that around six lakh government posts are vacant but the government is not filling them. The working president of Gujarat Congress Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) suggested that Congress mobilise youths of the state over this issue.
“If you want to bring about awareness among the youth, win their confidence, agitation is a way to do it. The unemployment rate during the Narendra Modi regime is the highest in the past 45 years. Around 30 years ago, the population of the state was almost half as compared to today’s and yet we had 5.10 lakh (government) servants. At this rate, 11 lakh people should be in government service today. So, presumably, seven lakh posts are vacant. We can mobilise around 21 lakh people over this issue,” Patel showed the calculations in his charges.
The Congress leader, who had spearheaded Patidar quota stir in the state, suggested that the party launch agitation over various issues and then gherao Assembly House. He also gathered support for his proposal of protesting at the CM’s residence.
Mr Patel was part of the Congress delegation guiding party workers from Mehsana, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad districts in a technical session on the theme of unemployment and youth, low levels of education and corruption. Former leader of Opposition in Assembly, Paresh Dhanani and MLA CG Chavda were also present at the meet.
