Jaipur:
The Gujjars in Rajasthan are once again raising the bogey of reservations. They will be holding a mahapanchayat or a community gathering in Rajasthan on Wednesday to decide their future course of action over the reservation issue.
Having lost the recent Lok Sabha elections despite standing on a BJP ticket, Gujjar leader Col Bainsla appears to be looking at gaining some lost political ground. The last Gujjar agitation in May 2008 had forced the Vasundhara government to give the Gujjars 5 per cent reservation in a separate category, but the bill is still pending with the governor and Col Bainsla is now trying to mobilize the Gujjars once again on the reservation issue.
"Our demand is reservation in the ST category but till we don't get that we must be given the 5 per cent promised to us," said Col Kirori Singh Bainsla, Gujjar Leader.
During the Vasundhara government's tenure the Gujjars had led two violent agitations for reservation bringing rail and road traffic to a standstill and clearly this time around the Gehlot government is taking no chances and a large number of additional forces have been deployed in Bayana to deal with any possible violence.
"We will take all legal action required to tackle the situation and the present agitation is 3 km away from the railway track so the rail traffic should not be disrupted," said Harish Meena, Director General of Police, Rajasthan.
In 2010 the names of those tribes included in the schedule tribe list will come up for review and till then the Gujjars will lose no opportunity to make their demands for inclusion in the ST list heard as loudly as possible.