Rajputs demanding reservation threaten to disrupt <i>chintan shivir</i>

January 16, 2013 08:04 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 10:35 pm IST - Jaipur

A section of Rajputs, under the banner of Shri Rajput Karni Sena, have threatened to sabotage the forthcoming AICC chintan shivir to be held here starting Friday, if their demands including reservation are not met.

Caste leaders have presented the state government with five demands — chief among them, reservation for the community’s economically backward members — to be met before the AICC chintan shivir , failing which community members “would meet or else confront” AICC president Sonia Gandhi.

The other four demands being made by the community are — recognition of Rajasthani as a state language under the eighth schedule, renaming of the AIIMS in Jodhpur after Saint Meera Bai, establishment of legendary ruler Maharana Pratap’s statue at the Kashmere Gate ISBT in Delhi and a CBI enquiry into the murder of liquor mafia Virendra Nyangli in 2009.

On Sunday, about 60,000 Rajputs from all over Rajasthan had assembled in Jaipur under the leadership of influential caste leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi to reiterate their demands.

During the meeting, which was also attended by senior BJP leader Kaptan Singh Solanki, the leaders declared that since the state government had maintained an indifferent attitude to their demands, they would take up the matter with Ms. Gandhi.

“We do not want any confrontation. But if the government continues to ignore us, we will be left with no other choice,” caste leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi told The Hindu .

“On the 19th, the second day of the chintan shivir , about 10,000 community members would breach security and confront Ms. Sonia Gandhi regarding our demands,” he said.

On Wednesday, Mr. Kalvi told his supporters to do a recce of the Birla auditorium, the venue of the chintan shivir , and find out ways to sneak in.

“As of now there are no plans to disrupt anything or engage in any kind of violence, but we have to be prepared,” Mr. Kalvi told his supporters, comprising mostly young community members, including some girls.

On reservation, Mr. Kalvi said if the government could grant reservation for Jats from Bhatartpur and Dholpur within four days in 2000, it could do the same for Rajputs.

“Jats from Bharatpur and Dholpur were rulers too, but the Congress government in the state wasted no time in providing them the benefits of reservation so why deny us,” he said.

Mr. Kalvi said BJP leader Vasundhara Raje, before she became the chief minister of Rajasthan, had agreed to the idea of reservation for Rajputs in a February 2003 letter. However, after assuming office, she went back on her promise, he alleged.

As far as recognition of Rajasthani language was concerned, Union Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch had promised him swift action in that regard, Mr. Kalvi said.

Virendra Nangli, a confidant of former minister and BJP MLA Rajendra Rathore, was the major rival of liquor mafia Dara Singh who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2006. Last year, the CBI had named Mr. Rathore as one of the accused in its chargesheet filed in the case.

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