Friday, Apr 12, 2002
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Gujarat
By Manas Dasgupta
No dharna, however, was staged in Ahmedabad and Baroda because police refused permission in view of the disturbed conditions. Instead, it was shifted to the capital, Gandhinagar, and the PCC president, Amarsinh Chaudhary, said the Congress did not want to give an opportunity to the Government to blame it in case of trouble. But in Rajkot, the Congressmen defied the ban and continued with the dharna at Trikonbagh in the heart of the city because the ruling BJP had not accepted the order cancelling a parallel "anti-Congress'' demonstration at the same site. About 150 Congress workers gathered at Trikonbagh for the dharna where they also planned to burn an effigy of the Chief Minister. The trouble started when a sub-inspector grabbed the effigy and ran towards a nearby girls' school. The Congressmen ran after the police official, snatched the effigy and later set fire to it. As the girl students raised a hue and cry, the police resorted to lathicharge outside the school gate. At least three persons were injured and police arrested about a dozen demonstrators. Police, however, ignored the BJP demonstrators who brought 16 donkeys with their eyes covered with cloth to symbolise "blind'' Congress leaders "refusing to see reason.'' In Broach, more than 100 party workers were arrested under the leadership of the former AICC treasurer, Ahmed Patel, for defying the ban order. The dharna by Congressmen wearing black bands was peaceful in other parts of the State and the party submitted memoranda, demanding Mr. Modi's removal, to collectors and other senior officials. Mr. Chaudhary said that it was the beginning of the Congress struggle to seek Mr. Modi's removal "in the interest of peace in the trouble-torn State''. Batches of Congress workers from different parts of the State would stage a dharna in front of the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram here everyday from April 16. The State BJP president, Rajendrasinh Rana, and other ruling party leaders said the Congress was trying to disrupt peace when normality was fast returning. The BJP-run State Government also rejected the Congress claim that the Gujarat violence had ruined the state's economy and its image among the people. An official spokesman said the jump in the prices of shares of some of the State-based companies and the Government-owned corporations in the last month showed that the Congress claim was "baseless and intended to bring a bad name to the State". He said that in the public sector companies where the State Government had high stakes, the prices of shares registered a 50 to 75 per cent hike from February 28, the day the disturbances started, till April 8, and at present was quoting the highest in the last year. Among the companies in this category, the spokesman named the Gujarat State Fertilisers Company, the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, the Gujarat Alkalies, the Gujarat Industries Power Company, the Gujarat Narmada Valley fertilisers Corporation, Atul industries, Cadila Healthcare and Torrent Pharma. About the Government's image among the people, the Agriculture Minister and Cabinet spokesman, Purshottam Rupala, claimed that more than 70 per cent of the 1,060 or so village panchayats where polling were held on Sunday had gone to the panels supported by the BJP. He claimed this as a proof that the Congress campaign of the BJP losing its image among the voters was wrong and the people had reiterated their faith in the leadership of Mr. Modi and his village improvement programmes.
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