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‘Raje hoodwinking people’

JAIPUR: Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot on Saturday described Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proposing a 4-6 per cent reservation for the Gujjar community after clubbing them with three nomadic tribes as an “attempt to hoodwink” the public.

“The recommendation on Gujjars as well the one on the economically backward communities does not mean anything and the Chief Minister knows it,” Mr. Gehlot said.

“The whole approach of the State Government is based on deception and treachery as the Chief Minister is not in a position to deliver what she had promised during her campaigns in the previous Assembly election,” said Mr. Gehlot talking to journalists here. “False promises made in the past have led to the present crisis over reservations. The crisis is the creation of Ms. Raje and her party colleagues,” he alleged.

Mr. Gehlot said the proposals in Ms. Raje’s letter to the Prime Minister were misleading as well as vague. “Her recommending 10-20 per cent reservation for the economically backward among the forward castes is premature as there is a Commission set up by the present Government in the State to look into the aspect,” he said.

According to him, the Commission was irrelevant but the Government did not wait for its report, he noted. In fact, the previous Government, headed by him, had already recommended 14 per cent reservation for the economically backward category.

Mr. Gehlot, who blamed the policies of the Raje Government for the present crisis involving Gujjars, said the authorities had failed to act when the members of the community led by Kirori Singh Bainsla dismantled railway tracks at Hindaun in an unprecedented act of defiance in 2006. “During the eight months of Gujjar agitation the Government did precious nothing to settle the issue through a dialogue. If the Government had acted on time the lives of 26 persons, who have been killed in police firing and violence during the agitation, could have been saved,” he noted.

“It is strange that the very same people who fought the Emergency have now imposed the National Security Act in a dozen Rajasthan districts to control Gujjar unrest,” Mr. Gehlot said referring to the Government’s bringing to force NSA on the eve of the proposed “Mahapadav” of the Gujjar community on Monday.

Mr. Gehlot said if the Congress comes to power after the next elections in the State, the party Government would institute an enquiry into various deals entered into by the present Government -- including those in the purchase of havelis Amber near here, 90 B on land, consultancy fees paid to various firms and the helicopter purchase.

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