Author: Anuradha Nagaraj
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 11, 2003
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=23627
Introduction: Brahmins, Rajputs,
Kayasths and now even Gelhot's Mali community join the shrill reservation
chorus that could soon turn into a caste war
The list of demands is never ending.
Barring the Dalits, every other community in Rajasthan is hankering for
a slice of the reservation pie. The Brahmins want it and so do the Rajputs,
Vaishs and Kayasths. The Gujjars want to be shifted from the scheduled
caste to the scheduled tribe category. And Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's
Mali community, which now enjoys an OBC status, does not want to share
its privileges with the Jats. For the drought-weary chief minister of Rajasthan,
reservation rallies are threatening to explode into a full-fledged caste
war as the state prepares for elections in November.
Every day, in some corner of Rajasthan,
community leaders are clamouring on to platforms, unleashing a barrage
of rhetoric and giving the Gehlot government an ultimatum - give us reservation
or kiss your political chairs goodbye.
''The Brahmins have about 40 lakh
votes in Rajasthan and if the state government or anyone else ignores us,
they will pay the price,'' warns Bhanwarlal Sharma, president of the Brahmin
Mahasabha.
''I am not getting into this controversy,''
Gehlot says firmly. ''It is not in my hands. The change has to be brought
in the constitution. I keep telling people that.''
Aware that giving Brahmins reservation
is not exactly in the Gehlot government's hands, Sharma adds: ''We expect
the state government to give us an OBC status and then we will continue
our struggle at the centre for reservation on economic grounds. Most people
don't realise this but once the Brahmins are given reservation, the entire
system will collapse and the central government will be forced to scrap
all that exists and come up with economic reservation.''
Sharma states matter-of-factly:
''Look, in Gehlot's hometown of Jodhpur, there were 1.5 lakh people who
attended our rally. Even if you go by figures released by the government,
there were more than 90,000. And they all want reservations. Can Gehlot
afford to ignore that?''
To make matters worse, Gehlot's
own ministers are attending these rallies and giving their support to everybody's
demands. In fact, in most cases, BJP and Congress MLAs choose to share
the reservation platform, each hoping that the mandate will go with them.
Three ministers from Gehlot's government have spoken up for the Gujjar
community, adding to the CM's bubbling cup of woes.
According to Govind Singh Gujjar,
Ramkishan Verma and Dr Jitender Singh, the agitations launched by other
communities is all ''politically motivated''. Sensing caste trouble, they
have appealed to the Gujjar youth to start an agitation against the BJP
government at the Centre in an attempt to balance the attack on the state.
In the same breath they also encouraged fellow ministers to openly support
their respective community's demands.
The Gujjar demand hasn't gone down
well with the others, especially the Meena community, who feel if Gujjars
join the scheduled tribe list, they will lose out in the long run.
The worst blow came when the Mali
community demanded a bifurcation of the 21 per cent reserved seats for
the OBCs into the ''backward'' and ''most backward'' segments.
Supporting their demands, Social
Justice Front's Satyanarayan Singh says that after the Jats were included
in the OBC categories, all other communities have been totally marginalised.
''Our demand is that all the new
communities that were included in the OBC list recently should be kept
separate from the old lot. Now what is happening is that the Jats are cornering
all the privileges and everybody else is losing out,'' Satyanarayan Singh
says.
Insisting that he doesn't feel the
pressure, Gehlot says that he has reassured his everyone that he will do
whatever he can do ensure the well being of his people. But beyond that,
for the moment, they are pushing their luck.
The last assembly election and how
the Jats turned hostile is still fresh in Gehlot's mind. In their election
manifesto, the Congress had clearly stated that they would give the Jats
an OBC status. They won, came to power and then forgot all about their
manifesto.
But the Jats didn't and the BJP
didn't either. In the parliamentary elections that followed, the BJP promised
the Jats reservation and when the Vajpayee government came to power, they
gave it to them. Gehlot's government was forced to follow suit, but at
the cost of having lost the support of the powerful Jat lobby.
''But since then, three of our Jat
leaders have managed to win by-elections. So the reconciliation has happened
otherwise how would they have won?'' questions Gehlot.
But ever since, tongues haven't
stopped wagging as more people scramble onto the reservation bandwagon,
confident of manipulating the government. ''It's an election year, after
all,'' Sharma says smugly.
