Gujarat MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani – arrested by Assam police in Gujarat two weeks ago and was released on bail on Friday – slammed the BJP on his arrival in Gujarat on Tuesday. Mevani called the state ‘useless’ for doing ‘nothing’ when a legislator was ‘kidnapped’; he called his arrest by Assam Police an ‘insult’ to the people of Gujarat.
“I would like to tell the Gujarat government that you are so ‘nikamma’ (useless)… that you could do nothing when Assam Police came to Gujarat to trample upon its pride. You should be ashamed of it. Assam Police kidnapping an MLA from Gujarat and taking him to Assam is an insult to 6.5 crore people of Gujarat,” Mevani, an independent lawmaker from Vadgam, said in Ahmedabad.
During his address he also asked people of the state to take an oath to never again vote for the BJP and to never attend a meeting of the RSS, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – the ideological mentor of the BJP. Mevani also hit out at the Assam government for not apologising to him.
Mevani arrived in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad Tuesday evening to a resounding welcome from his supporters. On his arrival, he thanked Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and other opposition party leaders from Gujarat and Assam for their support during his arrest.Mevani was widely expected to join the Congress last year but backed out over ‘technical difficulties’. He did, however, extend his support to the party and is likely to contest this year’s Guajrat assembly election on a ticket from the Congress.
