The Hindu : Front Page : Dissent within the Gujjars grows louder

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Saturday, Jun 21, 2008
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Dissent within the Gujjars grows louder

Special Correspondent

“The pact is a mirage as Rajasthan would cross the 50% ceiling on reservations”

JAIPUR: As the agreement signed between the Gujjar leaders and the Rajasthan government is being put to scrutiny, the voices of dissent within the community are growing louder.

The pact, which accorded five per cent reservation to the Gujjars along with three other pastoral communities, is being seen by various groups within the community as far removed from what was demanded. One of the key negotiators in the Gujjar-government talks, Delhi MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, on Friday rejected the accord and denounced it as “deceit.”

“The Gujjars have got nothing in the present bargain,” he said pledging to continue the struggle. “What kind of ‘historic’ agreement this could be?” he wondered. He pledged to continue the struggle and said the Gujjars had not received anything in the bargain.

“There is no letter recommending Scheduled Tribe status to the Gujjars and the promised five per cent reservation under special category is a mirage given the fact that with the latest announcements on quotas, Rajasthan would be crossing the 50 per cent ceiling on reservations enforced by the Supreme Court,” he said.

Disagreement

Mr.Bidhuri, president of the Nationalist Congress Party in Delhi and chief patron of the Akhil Bharatiya Gujjar Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti (Gujjar reservation action committee), shares his viewpoint with other Gujjar leaders such as Sukhbir Singh Jaunpuria, Haryana MLA and Masood Choudhary, Vice Chancellor of the BGSB University, Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir.

Dr. Choudhary, who led the negotiations held in Jaipur on the first three days, left the venue thereafter in disagreement.

Mr. Bidhuri remained part of the negotiations till June17, the penultimate day. Mr. Jaunpuria, who was present at the joint press conference by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Colonel Bainsla on June 18, had aired his differences while talking to the media later.

“The national leadership of [the] Gujjars always remained with Colonel Bainsla and Rajasthan’s Gujjars in the hour of crisis. We extended to them all help and provided them moral support,” Mr. Bidhuri said.

“I have respect for the Colonel but how will he justify the outcome of his violent agitation while taking into account the heavy losses including loss of precious lives?” he asked.

“Taken for a ride”

Mr. Bidhuri felt the government took the Gujjar community for a ride by offering them reservation outside the OBC slab of 21 per cent. “We had asked the government to provide five per cent reservation to Gujjars after taking out four per cent from the existing OBC share and adding the one per cent which was still left and there was a consensus on this. However, the next day [June 18] everything changed and out of nowhere, the agreement talked about five per cent reservation for Gujjars from outside the existing quotas.”

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