Other States - Rajasthan   

Gujjars take to agitation seeking ST status

Sunny Sebastian

The community reminds Vasundhara Raje that she had supported them when she was a Minister at the Centre

JAIPUR: The tribal Meena community and the backward Gujjars are heading for a confrontation in Rajasthan over the issue of reservation. The Gujjars, disillusioned with their existing status after the recent entry of the Jats into OBC fold in the State, are on the path of agitation demanding their notification as a Scheduled Tribe.

The Bharatiya Janata Party in the State is facing a situation similar to the one the previous Congress Government headed by Ashok Gehlot had faced over the demand of OBC status for the Jats. Mr.Gehlot's insistence on leaving the issue for the judgment of the Backward Classes Commission not only antagonized the Jats against the Congress but also ensured him a prominent place in the community's hate list.

The Gujjars are one group in the State feeling left out in the sharing of spoils of public life. Their political alienation has increased after the demise of the charismatic Rajesh Pilot a few years back. The community leaders are vexed over the tardy progress its members are making in Government jobs and elsewhere in social life compared to others in the east Rajasthan districts of Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, Karauli, Bharatpur and Dholpur.

It was this frustration of the community manifesting in the violence, which broke at the Hindaun railway station in Karauli district on Sunday last during a rail rokho (stop the trains) programme by the Gujjar Arakshan Samiti (Gujjar reservation committee).

Normally speaking the Gujjar community should have felt unhappy with the Jats for reducing their chance to get ahead in life by forcing their (Jats) way into the OBC grouping. However, Gujjars are seemingly more worried about the coming up of Meenas, as both the communities share the same geographical territory and somewhat a common lifestyle. The community elders are concerned about Meenas holding high positions in Government, especially as members of the Indian Civil Service and the Rajasthan Administrative Service and their youth remaining unemployed.

The Gujjars' ire against the rare railway lines (Rajasthan's share of rail lines is less compared to the neighbouring States) which they had uprooted with considerable effort in Hindaun was one way to catch the attention of the authorities as well as the general public, including the media, over their demand. The trick worked as the State Government not only acted soft on the agitators but also promised to activate a Cabinet Sub Committee Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had set up a year back but never found time to meet for a second time till this Friday. However, the Government's assurance to the Gujjar community that it would look into the demand has provoked the Meenas, who in turn, have warned of an agitation. On the eve of the meeting of the Cabinet Sub Committee in the capital as many as a dozen and a half Meena MLAs, cutting across party lines, met here to discuss the action plan in the wake of the "threat posed" by the Gujjars' demand. It appears as if the Raje Government has seized the nettle in the demand for ST status to Gujjars. The Government is yet to make its stand clear on the demand but the Gujjar community here never fails to remind Ms.Raje that she had not only supported this demand when she was a Minister at the Centre but also had "promised" ST status to them in the run up to the Assembly elections in 2003.

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