Jaipur: Gujjars in Rajasthan are once again keen to stir up the reservation cauldron through a Mahapanchayat or community gathering in Karauli district on Sunday. The Gujjars have been demanding Scheduled Tribe quotas for a long time.
They had been lying low after they were promised five per cent reservations under a special category in 2008. But the bill for their reservations has been pending with the Rajasthan Governor for nearly one year.
Gujjars in Rajasthan are set to return to the agitation path, and leading them once again is Colonel Bainsla, who lost the recent Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket. Bainsla is angry that despite the former Raje government passing a bill in the state assembly to give five per cent quotas to Gujjars, the Gehlot government has done nothing to push the Governor to pass the bill.
"Our demand is absolutely genuine. If we are not given justice now, we will have to revive our agitation. We may then be compelled to take many steps that we are not really keen to initiate," said Colonel Bainsla.
After Bainsla announced the Gujjar Mahapanchayat, the Gehlot government invited him for talks. But just before he was to meet Ashok Gehlot, on Friday Col Bainsla suddenly left Jaipur. To create pressure on the Gehlot government, Bainsla reportedly plans to begin a Maha Padav or indefinite siege after the Gujjar Mahapanchayat. But the government has deployed a large number of additional forces in the area to deal with any breach of law.
"They think that they can behave as irresponsibly as they used to do during BJP rule and they can take the law in their hands. But it is a Congress government now and we will not tolerate anyone breaking the law. That will not be allowed at all," said Rajasthan Home Minister Shanti Dhariwal.
However, Bainsla is keen to stir up the Gujjar demand for ST quotas, as the entire Schedule Tribe list will come up for review next year. Over 70 people were killed in Gujjar agitations in the past two years, and the big question now is - Can the Gehlot government prevent the agitation this time from spilling out of control?