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Haj House leaves Raje Government a divided house

Sunny Sebastian

JAIPUR: The ongoing controversy over allocation of five bighas of land for construction of a Haj House near Sanganer airport here is seen by political observers as an open challenge to the leadership of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Her detractors in the party as well as the Cabinet have successfully worked up religious frenzy over what is seemingly a non-issue rallying the support of the Hindutva organisations, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal.

The enemies have struck Ms. Raje at a time when she had been rendered weak with her image receiving a setback after a series of developments related to natural calamities and accidents at Falna in Pali district, Barmer and Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan, and Kaman in Bharatpur. While her party men did not criticise Ms. Raje over the handling of calamities during the monsoon, they stand divided over the Haj House issue.

For all practical purposes, the location of the Haj House is a non-issue, as only persons with strong ideological likes and dislikes can feel threatened by the presence of such an institution in their locality. As such a Haj House cannot be equated with a slaughterhouse from where some stink can emanate. A Haj House was first proposed nearer Jaipur at Karbala, a predominantly Muslim locality, on one bigha land during the period of the previous Congress Government headed by Ashok Gehlot.

Ms. Raje's was seemingly a genuine attempt to better the previous Government's offer by sanctioning five times more land though at a distance. Now all the fury is about the location of the Haj House in a non-Muslim area. Those who have invested in land in the area, which is only 2 km from Sanganer airport, are upset over the chances of a crash in land prices.

The professed reason for Ghanshyam Tiwari, the State Education Minister who has raised the banner of revolt over the location of the Haj House at Sanganer, to oppose the comeuppance of the institution is that the land allocated for it is community land, meant for grazing.

The land on which Ms. Raje laid the foundation of the Haj House on September 20 in the presence of Tanvir Ahmed, president of the Haj Committee, and Najma Heptullah, Member of Parliament, is at Ramsinghpura, 15 km from Jaipur, and falls in Mr. Tiwari's Assembly constituency.

Though his name was printed on the green lettered invitation card, Mr. Tiwari kept away from the function while after initial hesitation Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria joined. Mr. Tiwari has not been to his office ever since and in between there have been rumours about his tendering resignation -- which have since been denied.

The ding-dong battle that went on between the police and those who tried to thwart the function for six hours on the Jaipur-Kota highway prior to the foundation stone laying ceremony was the highlight of the function, which brought out the chinks in the BJP-led Government in the State. The fact that Ms. Raje reached the venue from the capital three hours late after taking a long detour, spoke volumes about her dilemma. Against all odds Ms. Raje stuck to her stand. According to political observers, there is something cyclical about Ms. Raje's troubles with her colleagues. It was around this time last year that the Minister duo of Mr. Tiwari and Narpat Singh Rajvi had first challenged Ms. Raje's intentions in allocating agricultural land along the Jaipur-Ajmer road for the proposed Mahindra and Mahindra Special Economic Zone.

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