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Congress team from Delhi detained

Special Correspondent

Party demands judicial probe into the police firing on Gujjars in Rajasthan

— Photo: PTI

ON THE WARPATH: Gujjars on the rampage at the Kama Khoh village in Bharatpur on Wednesday.

JAIPUR: A four-member delegation of the Congress from New Delhi, accompanied by scores of Pradesh Congress Committee workers, was detained on the way to trouble-torn Dausa district of Rajasthan on Wednesday for allegedly defying prohibitory orders even as the party demanded a judicial inquiry into the police firing on the agitating crowds of the Gujjar community.

The delegation, led by AICC spokesperson Satyavrat Chaturvedi, was going from Jaipur to Dausa and Karauli districts to meet the people affected by violence and find out facts regarding clashes with the police as well as to get to the bottom of the Gujjar demand for shifting them from OBC to the Scheduled Tribe category of reservation.

"Police first stopped us at Bassi and allowed us to leave for Dausa after heated arguments. When we reached Dausa, we were stopped again and taken into custody on unspecified charges," Mr. Chaturvedi told reporters after returning here. The delegation was detained at the City Kotwali for an hour before being let off with a warning not to come back.

Mr. Chaturvedi claimed that there were no prohibitory orders at the place where the Congress members were arrested. "The delegation is visiting Rajasthan on the instructions of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The use of force against us is yet another instance of the State Government's brutality that claimed a dozen lives on Tuesday," he said.

Besides Mr. Chaturvedi, other members of the delegation were AICC OBC department chairman K.C. Lenka; Krishna Teerath, MP; and AICC secretary in charge of Rajasthan, K.B. Krishnamurthy. PCC president B.D. Kalla and several other State leaders accompanied them.

Holding the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government responsible for the violence, Mr. Chaturvedi demanded a judicial probe into the police firing at both Dausa and Bundi. He said the State Government should immediately hold talks with all factions of the Gujjars to resolve the reservation issue.

Compensation sought

The Congress leader also demanded payment of Rs. 5 lakh each as immediate assistance to the next of kin of those killed in the police firing and a Government job to one person from each bereaved family.

While calling for punishment for those guilty of opening fire on unarmed crowds, Mr. Chaturvedi said he did not expect any act of moral responsibility, such as stepping down from office, from Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. "For the last 20 days, the Chief Minister was out of the State. Even now, she does not feel the need to go to the affected people and talk to them."

Asked about the Congress stand on the Gujjar demand, Mr. Chaturvedi said the matter was at present under the consideration of the State Government, which should submit its recommendation to the Centre without delay to fulfil its own promise made to the voters three years ago. "Congress had repeatedly warned the ruling BJP of unrest among Gujjars, but it paid no heed," he said.

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