Jaipur: Chaos and commotion rocked the Rajasthan Assembly all through Monday as Congress and BJP members locked their horns over the quota bill for Gurjjars. Promising 5 per cent reservations for Gujjars and 14 per cent for EBCs, the bill has been pending with the Governor for the past year.
Gujjars may be angry, but the Gehlot government says it is constitutionally impossible to hike reservations by another 19 per cent.
Says Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot: "Even the Congress agrees in principle to give 5 per cent reservation to Gujjars but they have added this 5% to the existing 14 per cent quota. The Governor has clearly said it is impossible."
The Vasundhara government's quota sops for Gujjars and the economically weak among the upper castes had raised reservations in Rajasthan to 68 per cent. But while those quota promises violate the constitutional norms and the Supreme Court ceiling of 50 per cent, the BJP insists it won't allow any bifurcation of its quota bill.
Says Leader of Opposition Vasundhara Raje: "We don't want any new bill as that can provoke more reservation fires in Rajasthan. We want that the Governor should sign on the quota bill passed unanimously in our time without any change."
But Gujjar leader Colonel Bainsla has agreed to discuss the Gehlot government's formula of providing 5 per cent reservations for Gujjars on a priority.
And the big question now is whether Bainsla will try to secure his community's interests or toe his party line of opposing any division of the quota bill.