And it did explode .... Gujjar violence in Rajasthan

The Rani's cup of woes is full. The state of Rajasthan had scarcely managed to catch its breath after the horrors of the Jaipur blasts, than the Gujjar violence began to sweep the state. And for the last three weeks, a group of marauders have had the nerve of the northwest by the scruff of the neck.

One cannot deny that the extent to which the Gujjar community has been mobilized is rather striking. This overrides the initial temptation to dismiss the agitation as a rag tag attempt by a motley group of miscreants. The violence, which, by virtue of its sheer scale, deserves to be called a "movement", was started very deliberately on May 23. A policeman was lynched in Bharatpur district, spurring the local police into action; thereafter the government forces had their fingers on the trigger. The Gujjars counted some 30 dead; enough to provoke an emotional response throughout the community. From the nerve centre of Bayana, the Gujjar protests spread far and wide; blocking arterial roads and railway trunk routes. In a startling display of poor taste, the dead were lined up beside the blocked roads and funerals were turned into political rallies.

Although the violence has been fairly well coordinated, the leadership of the movement has not. Initially, Col. Bhaisla, the self appointed mukhiya; demanded that talks with the State Govt. be held only in Bayana. At the same time, one of his top aides, Dr. Roop Singh, went to Jaipur and started parleying with the Chief Minister's appointees. Bhaisla rejected those talks and stuck to his guns. A clutch of other self styled leaders even demanded Vasundhara's resignation before they came to talks. The principal failure of the Rajasthan Government was that it could not exploit these divisions to its benefit.

Vasundhara Raje is also guilty of sitting on the Gujjar issue so far. A year ago, when the demand first surfaced in a violent manner, her government seemed paralyzed; and the administration lost control so quickly that the police had to open fire, killing several protesters. From that point, the government knew that there was no going back. Yet, it offered a hollow sounding "economic package" to the Gujjar dominated areas and hoped that it would just go away. This underscores the attitude of the Chief Minister, who still seems to have some of her "royal temper". Five years ago, the Rani won millions of hearts by touring the state on foot. But, ever since, the people have never heard from her. And when the Gujjars started their violence on May 23 this year, the government, no wiser from the events of 2007; walked right into the trap yet again. This time they had no excuse.

When the agitating Gujjars came to their door, the government waved the Chopra Commission report in their face. In doing so, they were, both literally and figuratively trying to keep out fire with a shield of paper. The sorry fact is that some officials in the administration, including perhaps the Chief Minister herself, thought it would work. The govt then turned to the Centre and for a short while, that seemed to relieve the BJP somewhat. The Gujjars diverted their attention from Jaipur to Delhi. But it was clear that this was at best, a short term tactic. The Centre kicked the issue right back to the state and things were back to square one. There is now talk of the Gujjars being granted "Notified Tribe" (NT) status. If there was a way out, the government should really have thought of this sooner.

The role of the Congress, and more precisely, that of Sachin Pilot, has been deeper and more insidious. Throughout the agitation, Pilot has chosen to stay in the background, trying to act innocent; almost a statesman! His objectives are twofold: one, to destabilize the state before the winter elections and two; to establish himself as frontrunner for Chief Minister, should the Congress come to power. The agitation did spread to New Delhi for a day, but the Congress ruled Capital never really faced the full brunt of the protests and the protesters withdrew, somewhat mysteriously, to Rajasthan, without so much as a promise or an appeal from the Centre. Although a fairly decent case can be made for the Centre having to play an equal and possibly even a preeminent role regarding the issue of reservations, which are capped at 50% by a Supreme Court directive, the Gujjars never confronted the Congress with this demand. This is strange, since the Central Government is now handing out candy to everyone. An even more striking feature is that the protests have had an air of personal grievance against the Chief Minister; at one point, the Gujjars even threatened to blow up the Rani's palace! This brings into question whether the violence is spurred by a demand for reservation, or a shadow tactic to indict the BJP.

The Oracle opines that fueling the Gujjar violence may not be such a smart political tactic after all. For a start, Gujjars form a mere 5% of the electorate. The community has never been a BJP base, in fact there are only about 5 Gujjars in the BJP's contingent of 120 MLAs. The scale of violence is bound to alienate other caste groups and create some sympathy for the beleaguered Chief Minister. Those other groups are expected to become even more hostile to the demand for Gujjar reservation and the parties that support it. In fact, if the Gujjar issue dominates the election instead of familiar anti-incumbency, the BJP will win. This is one reason the Congress has chosen to keep its role under wraps so far, refusing to openly come out in support of the Gujjar demand.

Finally, there are three things we should take note of:

1. The Gujjar movement has created a new paradigm for political protests in India. This is sectarian violence at its worst. What is to say that tomorrow the TRS, or Raj Thackeray's people will not adopt a similar tactic? That is one reason why the Gujjars, whenever they are pacified, should not be seen as having succeeded by "helping themselves through direct action". It would set a fairly dangerous precedent.

2. A larger question is why, at a time of massive all round economic growth; a government job is still "a life and death issue" for so many people. A clamour for reservation is a symptom of acute hopelessness, a time of scarcity, when its every man (or rather, every community) for himself.

3. And finally, this isn't China! The fatalities incurred during the initial Gujjar protests prove that our police need more access to rubber/plastic bullets rather than mortal ammunition. And they also need more training in crowd control tactics. It must be clear that opening fire on a group of civilians, peaceful or otherwise, is simply unacceptable. There are ways and means by which better organized government forces can prevail upon a bunch of violent protesters, who are bound to lack coordination and discipline. It is high time our law enforcement agencies were tutored in those civilized ways.