Hardik ‘morphed’ video: Even if I was in it, can’t a 23-year-old have girlfriends?

Ahmedabad: Patidar leader, Hardik Patel who arrived Bharuch’s Sarbhan village for campaigning with members of 10 villages was welcomed with tilak just a day after his ‘morphed’ intimate video was surfaced.
An interview with Hardik was held after he gave a speech on his arrival in Sarbhan, quotes The Indian Express.
When asked, will these videos harm his plans, he said: “From the support you see this evening, do you think the videos have harmed the agitation? They cannot. They are a desperate attempt by the BJP to cover up for their shortcomings. They could not threaten or break me, so they tried assassinating his character.”
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On being asked his stand on the issue, he added, “Had they done a sting operation on me with my fiancée in a hotel room, I would have accepted it. These are videos that have been created with a man who resembles me. However, even if we assume that I was immoral as some people say, and that it was indeed I in the video, I want to ask, can’t a 23-year-old youth have girlfriends? If a 23-year-old cannot have girlfriends, will a 50-year-old have girlfriends?
… Atal Bihari Vajpayee once said he isn’t married but he is not a sanyasi either… An elected BJP member was caught molesting a girl and [sexually assaulting] her in a moving bus but they don’t talk about it… This is not a BJP vs Congress fight. It is BJP vs Hardik.”
He was also asked whether he would take a legal action on the matter, he answered: “The police are theirs, the system is theirs. What will I get by going for legal action? I have no faith in the system in a BJP-administered state. I have gone through a lot of legal processes [following the sedition case], I know how it works. Also, in the world of politics, you have to be thick-skinned and also a neech (lowlife) to bear all this and remain silent… Let me tell you, I have become very neech.”
The authenticity of the ‘morphed’ video cannot be independently verified and seems to have been shot in a hotel on May 16, 2017. Hardik had earlier said that BJP has spent crores on his “character assassination”.