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Rajasthan redux

There is a depressing familiarity to the cycle of violence that has consumed Rajasthan over the past few days. Like it did a year ago, the agitation by Gujjars for Scheduled Tribe status has turned bloody, resulted in police firing, caused a number of deaths, and assumed the dimension of an ugly caste war. In a way, the recent spate of violence was only waiting to happen. Last year, the Vasundhara Raje government had cobbled together a shaky truce when it persuaded the Guj jar leadership to call off the agitation in return for setting up a committee to examine the claim for inclusion in the ST list. Ever since the Justice Chopra committee submitted its report — which stopped short of recommending ST status and suggested a package of economic measures instead — the Gujjar leadership has been restive. The government’s decision to forward the committee’s report without comment and subsequently to prepare a Rs.282 crore special economic package for five Gujjar-inhabited districts were seen by the protesters as attempts to duck the main issue. Kirori Singh Bainsla, the spearhead of the agitation, has made it clear that of the many demands, what he really wants is an unequivocal recommendation that the Gujjars be granted ST status.

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje — who is caught helplessly between this Gujjar demand and the violent opposition it has evoked from the numerically stronger Meena community — is reluctant to make such a recommendation to the Centre. Ironically, things may not have come to such an intractable pass if it were not for her reckless promise to grant Gujjars ST status during the 2003 Assembly election. This cynical vote-grabbing ploy is one of the reasons for the depths of Gujjar antagonism, which began to assume a worrying shape after the Vajpayee government reclassified Jats as an Other Backward Class. As things stand, Mr. Bainsla seems unimpressed by Ms Raje’s sops, such as the recommendation that Gujjars be given reservation of between four and six per cent as a nomadic tribe under the category of de-notified tribes. Given that this is an election year in Rajasthan, Ms Raje has an additional reason to ensure that an already bad situation does not get further out of hand. As for the Gujjar leadership, it evidently hopes that such protests will help forge a pan-Gujjar identity and increase the political clout of a community that inhabits a broad swathe of northern India. With Mr. Bainsla refusing to meet Ms Raje, it is difficult to see how this situation, which has been created and fanned by competitive caste politics, can be defused before more damage and destruction are caused.

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