Organisers at the function in Gandhi Ashram on Saturday had little time for the ageing activists invited to the event.
The Gujarat Day celebrations at Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad proved to be a bitter experience for many people who had fought for a separate state of Gujarat. They are old men and women now.
They had gone to the event at the ashram on Saturday hoping that there will be someone there who will acknowledge their numerous sacrifices. But no one seemed to have time to spare for these heroes and heroines of the Maha Gujarat Movement.
Budhdhiben Dhuv is 94 now. She, along with some other activists, had gone to jail during the Maha Gujarat Movement (MGM). She and other activists had been invited by the state government to function at the Gandhi Ashram on May 1 where martyrs of the movement were to be honoured. But when they arrived at the ashram, none among the organizers even acknowledged their presence. Recalling her days in the movement, Budhdhiben said the police had resorted to firing and many young men had been killed.
"Our leader, Indulal Yagnik, called a meeting of women volunteers and asked us to launch a 'Jail Bharo Andolan'," she said. "Our team of volunteers included late Ranjanben Dalal and Shardaben Bhatt (mother of Ashok Bhatt, the current speaker of the Gujarat assembly). I travelled to different places and villages right up to Mahesana. We talked to women along the way and asked them to join us in the movement. Finally, we were arrested and put in jail for 21 days."
Talking about today’s Gujarat, Budhdhiben said Gujarat had prospered immensely but people today don’t really love their state now. “During the movement, the atmosphere used to be very charged and every Gujarati wanted to have a separate state,” she said. Dinkar Amin, 70, is another MGM volunteer who had to suffer disappointment on Saturday. Recalling his role in the Maha Gujarat Movement, he said that he was asked to work among the people in Kheralu near Visnagar in North Gujarat.
The family members of the aged fighters are also angry over the attitude of the organizers. Rekhaben Mehta, Budhdhiben’s daughter, said they were officially invited to the event. “They even sent a vehicle to pick us up and drop us after the event,” she said.
“But we wouldn’t have gone if the organizers had no plans to publicly acknowledge the contribution of the fighters. None of the big leaders who were present were introduced to these fighters.”
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