A day after the Rajasthan government announced continuation of a recruitment drive, while holding back 4 per cent of the posts for pastoral tribes, Gujjars, agitating for reservation in government jobs, agreed on Wednesday to hold talks with the government representatives at Bayana town on Thursday. The Congress-led government achieved success in getting two major railway lines opened by Wednesday evening when it persuaded the Gujjars to vacate the Delhi-Jaipur track at Manota in Dausa district and the Jaipur-Sawai Madhopur track at Newai in Tonk district on the tenth day of their agitation.
The Ashram Express was the first train to travel on the Delhi-Jaipur route after railway employees repaired the track, which had been occupied by the Gujjars, led by BJP MLA Hem Singh Bhadana, since Friday last. The agitators laid siege to the Jaipur-Sawai Madhopur rail line last Saturday.
Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla, leading a huge crowd at the Pilukapura-Chhonkra level crossing in Bharatpur district, agreed to send an eight-member delegation to meet the government representatives camping at Bayana to “know what the government wants to offer to us.”
Col. Bainsla, who himself is likely to be one of the members of the delegation, told journalists at the blockade site that the opening of the channel of dialogue would “just [be] a start” and a move to “come nearer and closer to each other.” So far the Gujjar supremo would not settle for anything less than 5 per cent reservation.
The first round of talks between State Energy Minister Jitendra Singh and Gujjars at the Pilukapura railway line on Sunday remained inconclusive and Col. Bainsla gave a deadline of seven days to the State government, while asking the Minister to come again with a “satisfactory reply.”
While Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, accompanied by Chief Secretary S. Ahmed and Director-General of Police Harish Meena, monitored the situation throughout the day on Wednesday from his official residence here, Principal Urban Development Secretary G.S. Sandhu, who holds additional charge of the Home Department, was camping at Bayana to maintain regular communication with the agitating Gujjars.
Mr. Sandhu said he received a message from Col. Bainsla that the Gujjars were having discussions among themselves and would later like to hold negotiations with the government. “When the delegation meets us tomorrow [Thursday], they would have to tell us what exactly they want.”
The Principal Secretary said that though he expected the Gujjars to have a “positive stance,” he would wind up and go back to Jaipur if there was no progress even on Thursday. The government had an open mind and it had already announced whatever was possible with its limitations in the light of the Rajasthan High Court order, he added.
During the day, National Highway No. 11 between Jaipur and Agra as well as several other roads remained blocked, while the Gujjars called a bandh in the district headquarters and small towns in Dholpur, Baran and Bundi. Road commuters were put to great inconvenience, while train passengers got some respite with the opening of two railway lines.
The Gujjars have called for a shutdown in Bharatpur on Thursday.
Meanwhile, another influential Gujjar leader and president of the All-India Gujjar Araskshan Sangharsh Samiti Ramvir Singh Bidhuri — staging a dharna in Jaipur — rejected the State government's “new sops” announced on Tuesday and demanded withdrawal of the Act of 2008 on quota – since suspended by the High Court – and introduction of a new Bill for separate 5 per cent reservation to the Gujjars.
Mr. Bidhuri said that if the government was serious about negotiations with the Gujjars, it should invite a panel comprising Col. Bainsla, the former MLA, Prahlad Gunjal, and Kashmiri Gujjar leader Masood Chaudhary. “This panel should directly talk to the Chief Minister and evolve a solution on the suggested lines.”
