The Hindu : Front Page : Vasundhara Raje will stay, says Rajnath

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Sunday, Jun 03, 2007
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Vasundhara Raje will stay, says Rajnath

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: The demand for the removal of Vasundhara Raje as Rajasthan Chief Minister — reportedly led by Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari in the State and Jaswant Singh at the Centre — following Gujjar-police and Gujjar-Meena clashes has gathered momentum. But party president Rajnath Singh has made it clear that there will be no change now.

As one senior leader put it on Saturday: "Does one change the commanding officer in the middle of a war? The priority at the moment is restoration of peace in Rajasthan." In fact, some senior leaders said that any hint from the central leadership at this juncture that Ms. Raje may be asked to resign would further aggravate the situation as dissidents within the party would become active.

Leaders of the Opposition in the two Houses of Parliament, L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the morning "to discuss the entire situation arising from the violence," party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said later. Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil were present.

While help from the Centre in the form of forces was being coordinated by the Chief Secretary of the State and the Home Secretary here, party leaders said the discussion with the Prime Minister was on a possible political solution to the problem.

It is understood that the BJP wanted to know what the Centre would or would not do in the context of the Gujjar demand for Scheduled Tribe status. Significantly, this meeting took place before Ms. Raje met some Gujjar leaders in Jaipur. After the meeting with the Prime Minister, four senior leaders of the BJP — the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Rajnath Singh, Mr. Advani and Mr. Jaswant Singh — met at Mr. Vajpayee's residence to review the entire situation in the light of discussions with the Prime Minister who separately issued an appeal to people to maintain calm, help restore peace and not do anything that could lead to escalation of violence.

Over the last two days BJP leaders have been trying to convey to the media that "only the Centre" has the power to grant ST status to any community and that the process is lengthy and difficult. Asked if this was the case why did the leaders in Rajasthan make this promise, the response was that in some Gujjar pockets the promise was made. However, the fact that the State Govt. set up a group of Ministers for this purpose establishes that it meant business. Now the BJP seems to want the Centre's help in making good that promise even as it is wary about the fallout on the ST Meenas who oppose tribal status for Gujjars as they would eat into the pie of reserved positions.

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