Pimping a la Patel

 

Courtesy Nala Ponnappa

Praful Khoda Patel has made pimping an art. He knows how to sell India piece by piece to certain clients who have high connections. He sold Daman and Diu to CG Corp Global in 2018. Now he is selling Lakshadweep to other VIP clients. Thousands of indigenous people are displaced by him with impunity because he is acting on behalf of the central government which reportedly has “dreams for the people”.

This Patel is a phenomenon. His father, Khodabhai Ranchhodbhai Patel (a mouthful of a name) was an RSS leader whom Narendra Modi regarded as a guru. Our man became an MLA in Gujarat in 2007 and took over the entire charges of Amit Shah when the latter went to jail for arranging the encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheik. Now you can understand the ‘greatness’ of this phenomenal Patel. No ordinary man can take the place of Amit Shah under Narendra Modi.

The people of Gujarat failed to perceive that greatness, however, and Patel lost the 2012 election. But soon Modi became the PM and Patel was elevated to prominent places. Modi junked the convention of appointing IAS people as administrators of Union Territories and put Patel in Daman & Diu and soon extended his ominous power to Dadra & Nagar-Haveli.

Wherever he was, Patel was hated actively by ordinary people as well as his own party men. BJP leaders have complained against him time and again. As many as eight leaders have quit BJP in Lakshadweep now protesting against Patel’s reforms in the islands. Hundreds of simple fisherfolk in Daman now live in slums, thanks to Patel who bulldozed their homes and gave their lands to somebody who came from somewhere. He is doing just the same in Lakshadweep.

Patel’s aura was so powerful that it drove the Dadra & Nagar-Haveli MP to suicide in 2021. Though Patel was specifically mentioned in the suicide note as responsible for the ‘injustice, insult and bias’ that drove the MP to the extreme step, the law did not deem it necessary to take action against the great man.

If a Parliamentarian cannot survive Patel’s tyranny, how can simple fisherfolk do? Patel is selling Lakshadweep in the name of tourism. There is hardly any place left in those islands for developing tourism.

Is it about tourism really? Patel brought the pandemic to the islands with his villainous plans. He brought alcohol to the islands. He stole the people’s food, especially the school children’s. 200-odd schoolteachers were dismissed summarily. He closed down dairy farms. He threw the local people out of jobs. Even the sub-divisional magistrates were thrown out and Patel’s North-Indian chamchas have been appointed in their place.

Isn’t Patel a phenomenon?

Patel is the New India’s phenomenal metaphor. He is the pimp between the government and the corporate trader.

PS. Written for Indispire Edition 376: Write a post on the phenomenon called Praful Khoda Patel. #PrafulKhodaPatel