The first deaths in the Gurjjar-Meena clashes came today but it was on Wednesday that the first stone was cast — hurled on a Gurjjar vehicle at the Mehendipur crossing on the Jaipur-Agra highway, near Ground Zero of Peeplikheda. All along National Highway 11, young Gurjjar bikers began to angrily whisper revenge.

It didn’t come on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the whispers turned to loud protests. Riding pillion on motorcycles, rumours spread that Gurjjars were harassing women, not allowing ambulances to pass and not letting people buy essential commodities. Then there was the rival motorcycle group — riders carrying stories of Meenas arming themselves, preparing for an assault.

Both these stories spread as fast as the motorcyles themselves.

Riding one of them is Mathuresh Kumar Gurjjar, MK, as he likes to be called — and adds that he doesn’t like wearing a helmet, he prefers the wind in his hair. He agrees to let The Indian Express ride pillion to follow his trail.

“A lot of my friends are Meenas,” says MK, “I get along famously with them but each time I am reminded of the differences between us, my blood boils. They are where they are only because of the ST status they have managed to get.”

Waving to friends and yelling out “Ram Ram Sa” to elders, MK has spent the last three days on the roads of Dausa, chronicling an agitation that he firmly believes will give his eight-month-old daughter a better future.

... contd.