Kantilal Amrutiya

Kanabhai S. Amrutiya ( pronunciation  officially known as Kantilal S. Amrutiya ( pronunciation  born 8 March 1962 is a current MLA from Morbi constituency in Gujarat, india for its 13th legislative assembly^[2] He is known by the name "Kanabhai" among the people of Morbi and surroundings. He has worked in agriculture and industry. Kanabhai S Amrutiya has been elected as M.L.A. for the fifth time continuously. ^[3]

Parliamentary career

Member,
(1) Ninth Gujarat Legislative Assembly, 1995-1997,
(2) Tenth Gujarat Legislative Assembly, 1998-2002,
(3) Eleventh Gujarat Legislative Assembly, 2002-2007,
(4) Twelfth Gujarat Legislative Assembly, 2007-2012,
(5) Thirteen Gujarat Legislative Assembly, 2012-

Activities

• Ex-President, Jetpar Group Service Cooperative Society Ltd.
• President, Morbi Taluka Panchayat.
• Trustee,
  (1) Amubhai Aghara Memorial Trust,
  (2) Morbi Panjara Pol
• Leader of the Morbi Kadva Patel Samaj and Associated with the activity Like Mass Marriages in the community and trustee in various trusts.
• Ex-leader of Morbi Ceramic Federation.

Personal life

Kanabhai was born on 8 March 1962 to a middle-class Patel community family in Jetpar in Morbi district of Gujarat State, India. During the Flood Due to Failure of Machhu Dam in the end of seventies, even as a young boy, he volunteered to serve the victims in Rehabilation. As a young man, he joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, a student organisation and was involved in the anti-corruption Nav Nirman Movement. After working as a full-time member for the organisation, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. As a teenager Kanabhai used to help in agriculture work with his family.He completed his schooling from V C Technical Highschool at Morbi.

Criminal record

Sitting BJP MLA from Morbi Kantilal Amrutiya earned a reprieve on Thursday when the Gujarat High Court acquitted him of murder charges.^[4]

Another local BJP leader in Morbi Agechaniya Gangaram Tapu, who died in Vadodara Central Jail on January 11 this year, was also acquitted in the case. The court refused to accept Amrutiya's statement recorded under section 164 of the criminal procedure code.

Amrutiya and six others were slapped life imprisonment after being convicted by the Gondal sessions court in 2004 in case of conspiring and killing former president of Morbi municipality, Praveen Raveshia Raveshia was stabbed to death in a broad daylight on September 16, 1999 by four persons. The court conviction came on the basis of statements of two witnesses, Jayesh Vashram and Abdul alias Anis Snaghi, which were recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC before a judicial magistrate.

Ten eyewitnesses and many of the 170 witnesses turned hostile during trial in the lower court at Gondal.

The division bench comprising Justice AM Kapadia and Justice H N Devani refused to accept the statements recorded under section 164 of the CrPC, as the witnesses had later turned hostile before the trial court.

However, the court dismissed appeals of four others - Ramesh Koli, Magan Koli, Narottam Koli and Praveen alias Dalo, who were convicted for stabbing Raveshia.

Advocates S V Raju and Himanshu Patel argued that statement under section 164 only be used as corroborative evidence and not the main evidence. The deceased Raveshia had enmity with several other people who also shared a motive to hatch a conspiracy to kill him and hence Amrutiya cannot be convicted only in the basis of the statements recorded, they argued

Early activism and politics

Kanabhai was a Swayam Sevak in the RSS during his early years of Social Life. He took up the challenging task of energising the party cadres at local level in right earnest. In Association with Co-workers and Local Industrialist, Kanabhai set about creating a strong cadre base of Bharatiya Janta Party in Morbi District, Saurashtra and Kutch . In the initial period, He Started as a Member of Nagarpalika of Morbi and Taluka Panchayat, and his Maternal Uncle Amubhai Aghara was Leading at Constituency Level.

The party cadres started gaining political mileage and formed a good rappot.

In 1995, Kanabhai taken up the command of Party cadre at Morbi and elected as M.L.A. for the first time. Since then till now (As on 1.1.2013) he is serving the constituency of Morbi as M.L.A continuously. In the Gujarat State Election in December 2012, Kanabhai was Elected 5th time.

Tenure as M.L.A of Morbi

In 1995, Kanabhai was first time elected as MLA and was a part of Government of Gujarat. During the period of 1995-1998 there was a dramatic situation of Bharatiya Janta Party itself in Gujarat, Until Shri Narendra Modi taken the Charge of the Party. There were certain issues of Leadership when, three Chief Ministers were changed in a short period.Shankersinh Vaghela rebelled and left BJP, formed his new party, then he joined Congress. Keshubhai Patel taken the charge as Chief Minister, preceded to Dilip Parikh, but the internal issues of party were at top.

In spite of indulging in Cast-ism and Group-ism Politics Kanabhai keep continued his work of social service and development of Morbi.

Kanabhai S Amrutiya receiving 2nd best M.L.A. Award out of 182 in Gujarat

^[5] In 2012 Kanabhai was Awarded with the 2nd Best M.L.A. award among 182 M.L.A. of Gujarat by Shining India Info Pvt Ltd, during a survey project of "EkMulakat".

2002 Election

As an aftermath of the riots, there were calls for Modi to resign from his position as chief minister of Gujarat. The opposition parties stalled the national parliament over the issue and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP), allies of the BJP, also asked for Modi's resignation.^[6][7] Modi submitted his resignation and the state Assembly was dissolved.^[8] In the resultant elections the BJP, led by Modi, won 127 seats in the 182-member assembly.

2007 Elections

Modi made a speech at Mangrol in which he justified the encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, during the election campaign in response to Sonia Gandhi's speech calling him a "merchant of death",^[9] and referred to Sohrabuddin's killing. For this speech the Election Commission of India, a constitutional body governing election proceedings in India, cautioned Modi as it considered it as indulging in an activity which may aggravate existing differences between different communities.^[10] Modi won the election and continued his post as the Chief Minister Of Gujarat, he won with majority of votes of 122 seats out of 182 total assembly seats.^[11]

Sadbhavna Mission

In the late 2011-early 2012 Narandra Modi underwent a series of fasts as part of the Sadbhavna Mission. The mission started on 17 September 2011 in Ahmedabad with 3 day fast with a view to strengthen the atmosphere of peace, unity and harmony in the state. He observed total 36 fasts in 26 districts, 8 cities including Ahmedabad.^[12] Criminal record http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Morbi-MLA-acquitted-in-murder-case/articleshow/2491597.cms?referral=PM Sitting BJP MLA from Morbi Kantilal Amrutiya earned a reprieve on Thursday when the Gujarat High Court acquitted him of murder charges.

Another local BJP leader in Morbi Amit Gangaram Tapu, who died in Vadodara Central Jail on January 11 this year, was also acquitted in the case. The court refused to accept Amrutiya's statement recorded under section 164 of the criminal procedure code.

Amrutiya and six others were slapped life imprisonment after being convicted by the Gondal sessions court in 2004 in case of conspiring and killing former president of Morbi municipality, Praveen Raveshia Raveshia was stabbed to death in a broad daylight on September 16, 1999 by four persons. The court conviction came on the basis of statements of two witnesses, Jayesh Vashram and Abdul alias Anis Snaghi, which were recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC before a judicial magistrate.

Ten eyewitnesses and many of the 170 witnesses turned hostile during trial in the lower court at Gondal.

The division bench comprising Justice AM Kapadia and Justice H N Devani refused to accept the statements recorded under section 164 of the CrPC, as the witnesses had later turned hostile before the trial court.

However, the court dismissed appeals of four others - Ramesh Koli, Magan Koli, Narottam Koli and Praveen alias Dalo, who were convicted for stabbing Raveshia.

Advocates S V Raju and Himanshu Patel argued that statement under section 164 only be used as corroborative evidence and not the main evidence. The deceased Raveshia had enmity with several other people who also shared a motive to hatch a conspiracy to kill him and hence Amrutiya cannot be convicted only in the basis of the statements recorded, they argued.

2012 Elections

The BJP secured a majority in these elections.^[13] Narendra Modi won in his constituency Maninagar by a margin of 86,373 votes against Shweta Bhatt (wife of Sanjiv Bhatt) of the Indian National Congress.^[14] The BJP has been the ruling party in Gujarat since 1995.^[15]

Use of social networking technologies

Modi interacted with netizens on Google+ on 31 August 2012.^[16] The chat session was also live broadcast on YouTube, and Modi took part in it through Ahmedabad.^[16] The chat was schedule to start at 20:00 IST, but began 45 minutes late because of the reported crash of Google+ due to the response.^[17] The questions were to be submitted before the chat, and were mostly based on issues about education, youth empowerment, rural development and causes of urbanisation.^[17]

Modi became the first Indian politician to interact with netizens through live chat on Internet after the hangout.^[18] Google+'s Hangout feature allows ten people to group chat at a single time.^[18] The same day the hangout was organized, the Gujarat High Court gave its statement on the Naroda Patiya massacre.^[16] Hashtag #ModiHangout became the most trending term in India at Twitter on the day of the session, whereas #VoteOutModi, used by Modi's opponents, became the third most trending term in the country.^[16] A day before the session, Modi tweeted, "Friends, I am looking forward to exchanging ideas with you on G+ Hangout tomorrow on 'Realising Swami Vivekananda's vision of Strong India'!" The chat session was also shown on Modi's YouTube channel in real time.^[16] The chat was hosted by Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn, who was shooting for his upcoming film Himmatwala in Hyderabad.^[19]

On 30 August 2015, Amrutiya resigned as the leader of the Morbi Ceramic Federation 5 days after its headquarters was set on fire by a Patidar mob.^[20] His office was torched during violence that erupted following the arrest of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel in Ahmedabad.

Modi answered 18 questions in two sessions.^[19] The session didn't include many Gujarati people, with more people from other states and NRIs.^[21] Modi received one lakh questions.^[21] When asked about his definition of the word secular, he said, "Think that our nation must be on top in all respects. That is secularism, according to me," adding,"The word secular has been used and abused for votebank politics. Take the example of the microminority of Parsis who are a happy community living in Gujarat today."^[17]

References