Alpesh goes on fast for peace

AHMEDABAD: Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor, who is facing the heat over the violence against Hindi-speaking migrants in Gujarat, observed a day-long fast here Thursday for “peace and harmony” and asserted that “no one is a migrant”.

He said “someone may have said something” against the migrants and that the real culprits were those who politicised the issue.

He ended the fast in the evening by drinking a glass of juice offered by a girl from a migrant family.

After the rape of a 14-monthold girl in Sabarkantha district on September 28 and arrest of a labourer hailing from Bihar for the crime, six districts in Gujarat have seen incidents of violence against Hindi-speaking migrant workers.

The attacks led to exodus of an estimated over 60,000 migrants, mostly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

In his address at the venue of his ‘Sadbhavna Upvas’ (goodwill fast) near his residence in the Ranip area here, Thakor said he never spread hatred.

“I am not at all into spreading hatred... We (his Thakor community) are pure at heart. It is possible that someone may have said something (against migrants), but we do not harbour grudge against anyone. We never indulge in violence,” the Congress MLA said.

Thakor, who heads the Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena, also said that some people were doing politics over the issue.

“We all need to make sure that Gujarat’s image does not get tarnished. No one is a migrant... The word itself is wrong. I think some people are politicising the issue. This is an attempt at breaking the country,” he said.

Thakor also said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi has advised him to practise the politics that unites the country.

“At this point, I remember Rahul Gandhi’s words. He told me, Alpesh, we should do the politics which unites the country,” Thakor said.