THE Shankersinh Vaghela rebellion against the Keshubhai Patel-led BJP government cast a long shadow in Gujarat. A part of it involved a dhoti.
On Thursday, the “dhotiya kaand” – as it came to be called – was finally laid to rest when the Ahmedabad City Sessions Court closed a case of attempted murder against former Union minister Amrutlal Kalidas Patel, for allegedly being involved in an attempt to pull the dhoti off a loyalist of Vaghela, Atmaram Patel, in 1996.
Atmaram is dead, as is Keshubhai. Amrutlal is 94. As for Vaghela, the 85-year-old evergreen politician of Gujarat has had several changes of (political) outfit since that day 29 years ago.
The dhoti case may be the last thing many remember of Amrutlal now. But that was not how it was meant to be.
Amrutlal was one of only two BJP MPs to win in the post-Indira Gandhi assassination Lok Sabha polls of 1984 (the other being C Janga Reddy from Hanamkonda in united Andhra Pradesh), with the elections swept by the Congress. Amrutlal won from the Mehsana seat.
Since the BJP was carved out of Jana Sangh only in 1980, it made Amrutlal the party’s very first MP from Gujarat – a state that is now synonymous with the BJP.
Before that, Amrutlal had had two stints in the state Assembly, winning from Vijapur in Mehsana in 1975 as an Independent, and retaining it in 1980 as a BJP candidate. After becoming an MP for the first time in 1984, he served four more terms as an MP from Mehsana, till 1999.
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When the BJP formed its second government in power at the Centre (the first fell in days and the second in over a year), Amrutlal became Union minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
In the 1999 Lok Sabha polls held after the Vajpayee government’s fall, Amrutlal lost. But the BJP nominated him to the Rajya Sabha a year later, and he served out his stint till 2006.
The dhoti incident happened at a BJP rally held on May 20, 1996, to celebrate the party coming to power at the Centre for the first time. Vajpayee, who had taken oath just four days earlier, had won from two Lok Sabha seats – Gandhinagar and Lucknow (he later gave up Gandhinagar) – and the event was organised to felicitate him.
It was then that the ruckus started. Soon after Vajpayee had addressed the gathered BJP assembly, tensions brewing within the party over the rebellion Vaghela had stoked, leading to Keshubhai’s removal as CM, boiled over.
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The September 1995 rebellion itself was the first of its kind, with Vaghela leading 40-plus MLAs of the BJP to a resort in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. In times to follow, they came to be known as “Khajurias”, those who stayed back were dubbed “Hajurias (Yes men)”, and resorts became go-to destinations for wannabe rebels.
Days after Vaghela threatened to split the party, the BJP replaced Keshubhai with Suresh Mehta as CM.
With the rancour still fresh, Keshubhai and Vaghela’s supporters came to blows at the May 1996 function. Atmaram, the 78-year-old Mehsana MLA and cooperative leader, who was seen as Vaghela’s man, nearly had his dhoti pulled off. Another Vaghela supporter, Dattaji Chirandas, ran away, reportedly fearing for his life.
An FIR was lodged against 29 people at the Naranpura Police Station, including another big Gujarat name, Pravin Togadia (who served a long time as the VHP chief).
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Five months later, in October 1996, Vaghela became the CM. But he had a short stint too, making way for Dilip Parikh in October 1997. Keshubhai returned as CM in 2008, only to be replaced by Narendra Modi in 2001.
In 2002, six years after the dhoti episode, Atmaram died.
In 2018, a court dropped charges against all barring two – Amrutlal and Mangaldas Patel. After Mangaldas died, only the 94-year-old was left in the list of accused.
Representing the Gujarat government, public prosecutor Sudhir Brahmbhatt cited his age and Mangaldas’s death to urge the Sessions Court to drop the case.
On Thursday, Additional Sessions Judge Hemang Kumar Pandya allowed the plea, observing that the matter involved an intra-party fight and that two of those involved, Atmaram and Mangaldas, were dead.
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“The case is related to an internal conflict of a political party and the permission sought to withdraw this case in the larger interest of the society appears to be a bona fide intention of the prosecution,” the court said in its order.
Brahmbhatt says the case may have dragged on. “It came to light only following an initiative to expedite cases against politicians.”
Vaghela, who now heads his own ‘Praja Shakti Democratic Party’, says he has a vivid memory of the day, particularly the “attack” on his supporters. However, there is no point challenging the closure of the case, he says. “The perpetrators are in power now, nothing will come of it.”
Then CM Suresh Mehta suggests the anger was linked to the felicitation held for Vajpayee, as the senior BJP leader had been instrumental in deciding Keshubhai’s successor. “Some people in the party did not like the rally for Atalji. The ruckus began after he had exited. Atmaram kaka was humiliated to the extent that he cried.”
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Amrutlal, hard of hearing now due to age, maintains his innocence, adding that this is why he never lost sleep over it. Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone, he says: “Actually, I did not (try to pull off the dhoti). Atmarambhai was very close to me then. I saved him and covered him with a cloth. But still, (I was made an accused)… possibly to damage me politically. I never had any enmity with him.”
Enmity or not, Atmaram had his revenge for the “dhotiya kaand”. In 1999, having joined the Congress by then, he unseated Amrutlal from his bastion of Mehsana Lok Sabha seat.