Asserting themselves ahead of the State Assembly election due this year, Dalits and tribals in Rajasthan are batting for higher reservations in jobs and education, proportional to the rise in their population, and are also pitching for separate welfare measures. Their demands have thrown up a challenge for the State’s ruling Congress party, which is already under pressure due to the recent eruption of caste tension in Bharatpur district.
Other demands include reservations for government job promotions, filling up of backlog vacancies, and the withdrawal of cases registered during the 2018 Bharat Bandh organised by Dalit groups. Dalit communities have also complained that though there are 56 Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe members in the State Assembly, only a few speak about the issues crucial to their communities.
‘Expand quotas’
A massive Dalit Mahapanchayat held in Jaipur earlier this month called for increasing reservation from 16% to 17.8% for SCs and from 12% to 13.5% for STs. The event, organised by the Dr. Ambedkar Memorial Welfare Society, was supported by as many as 29 Dalit and tribal groups. In addition to a dozen demands made to the Central government, the participants also raised 26 demands for action from the State government.
Mahapanchayat convener B.L. Arya said that the SC and ST leaders in the government were not raising the demands of their communities strongly enough. Besides, the bureaucrats were putting hurdles in the way of Dalits getting their full quota benefits, he alleged, adding that the politicians who made promises before elections invariably became silent after coming to power.
Jat Mahasabha convener Rajaram Meel, Congress MLA and former Director General of Police Harish Meena, Ministers Govind Ram Meghwal, Mamta Bhupesh, Tikaram Julie and Bhajan Lal Jatav, and several former bureaucrats participated in the mahapanchayat.
Bhil homeland
Mr. Arya said that 322 cases had been registered against the membes of SC and ST communities in the State during the April 2018 Bharat Bandh. “The State government had promised that these cases will be withdrawn. It has not been done so far,” he said.
The Congress government, which has recently formed 19 new districts in the State, also faces a challenge from the Bhil tribals in the southern parts of the State, among whom a movement has started for establishing a Bhil homeland comprising the tribal-dominated regions of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
Bhil voters enjoy influence in 16 of the 28 Assembly seats in the Udaipur division. If the demand for a separate homeland gains ground in the region, if may affect the prospects of the mainstream parties in this year’s Assembly election and also force the Bharatiya Tribal Party, which won two seats in 2018, to devise new strategies for the poll.
Caste tension
The caste tension which erupted in Bharatpur district’s Nadbai town this week after a dispute between two groups over the installation of statues of Dr. Ambedkar and erstwhile Jat ruler Maharaja Surajmal, has also thrown up a challenge for the State government. The Jat community wants to instal Surajmal’s statue at the main roundabout, Belara Chauraha.
The villagers hurled stones at the police personnel and blocked a State highway, but the situation was subsequently brought under control. The State government expects to resolve the dispute with the intervention of Tourism Minister Vishvendra Singh, who represents the Deeg-Kumher Assembly constituency.
