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Violence leaves many in Rajasthan BJP red-faced

JAIPUR: Renewed violence over the Gujjar community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status has left many in the Rajasthan Cabinet and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party here red-faced.

After year-long negotiations with the Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti (Gujjar reservation action committee) led by retired Col. Kirori Singh Bainsla, and after appointment of two official committees to look into the demand, the situation, going by the latest flare-up, has only worsened.

There were glum faces all round at the Cabinet meeting convened by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to take stock of the situation after the police firing and violence in Bayana tehsil of Bharatpur on Friday. At least half a dozen Ministers, including Narpat Singh Rajvi, Ghanshyam Tiwari and Rajendra Singh Rathore, almost heckled Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria and his team over “mishandling” of the situation.

Obviously it was not the policing alone. The Gujjar policy of the Rajasthan Government--if at all it had any--has failed.

More than her Cabinet colleagues it was Ms. Raje who could not hide her extreme discomfiture over the developments. She had an array of questions to ask Mr. Kataria and his men about steps not taken to stop men from reaching the rail tracks on the Delhi-Mumbai route. However, the moot question was how could Col. Bainsla, assiduously cultivated by the BJP and the Government in the past, allow this to happen, that too when Mr. Kataria was in touch with him on phone on the eve of the agitation?

The Chief Minister did not address the media who had been waiting for more than an hour at her office for the briefing. A crestfallen Home Minister, accompanied by Director-General of Police A. S. Gill and Home Commissioner V. S. Singh, did that. On his part, Mr. Kataria expressed his helplessness over the situation and tried to pass on the blame to the local authorities.

The situation was somewhat different ten days ago when Jaipur was rattled by a series of bomb blasts which claimed 66 lives. The Chief Minister met the journalists on a regular basis for at least the next two days. There was much to talk about—including the Centre’s “soft approach” towards terrorism and the non-clearance of laws enacted by the State to “strictly deal” with terror.

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