A Tribute to a Strong man of Gujarat.
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He was outspoken and would call a spade a spade and no less ! He would draw our attention when as Police Officers , we faulted. When I resorted to a heavy lathi charge on the demostrators who resorted to violence across a river on the river bank where a function of Minister Amar Singh Chaudhari was attending. He called me and scolded me for using excessive force and also sent a message to Amar Singh Chaudhari , prob thru me, and Bhanabhai Bharati of villade Indu saying tell Amar Singh that the protesters are his voters ( and may take revenge later on ) .
He did very commendable social service among the Adivasis of South Gujarat and else where also and was held in awe by all the rulers.........
His social work among the Adivasis was so much deep and wide that once my friend Maganbhai Patel of Ena village, of Bardoli Tq and partner in Sardar Cement Company, told us " Zinabhai's work in Adivasis is is so much commendable that if he goes into the woods and shouts , if any Adivasis is not around, even the trees would respond to his call " ! જીણાભાઈ જંગલમાં જાય અને બૂમ પાડે , કોઇ આદિવાસી હાજર ન હોય, તો , જાડવા પણ જવાબ આપે !
. He protested against imposition of Emergency and wrote against it frequently to the PM Indira Gandhi. We knew it and suspected that Indira Gandhi would put him behind bars , but nothing of such things happened and Emergency passed.
A public Meeting was held on the outskirts of Vyara to be addressed by PM Indira Gandhi and he sat on the ground in the fffront row , Indiraji climbed on the dais and saw him sitting with folded legs, and announced from the microphone asking " Jinabhai aap yahan aaiye " and he sat along with Indira ji on the dais, only were there on the dais
When I was transferred from Vyara, he came to see me That was the greatest matter of happiness for me. I told this incident to my friend Addl Dist Magistrate Vasant Parmar of Surat Dist, and he exclaimed that " Zinabhai Darji coming to house of a Police Officer to see him on transfer is itself a matter of great credit. I lived in the same Brahmin Colony where he lived, a distance of hardly 50 feet.
He came to see me in SRP Officers' Flats in Lal Baug , Baroda where I was posted as Vice Principal Police Training School, and we dined together. Similarly, Amar Singh Chaudhari also came to see me at the same flats in Baroda.
Both of them could not do as much as they could because the bureaucracy in Gandhinagar and Delhi was highly dominated by the Brahmins and I had to suffer on account of my intimacy with Zinabhai , but I feel proud of my intimacy with him on his commitment to the amelioration of the SCs and STs and I belonged to that class.
I salute his commitment to the cause of the Scheduled castes and the Scheduled tribes..
But then those were the days .
