After two years of a bitter social and political battle over the sensitive reservation issue, the two communities of Gurjjars and Meenas have finally started showing an intention to bury the hatchet.

Attempts by the Ashok Gehlot Government, which was voted to power six months ago, to engage leaders of both communities in dialogue and the Union Minister of State for Communication Sachin Pilot’s visit to a Meena household recently has Gurjjars and Meenas showing a willingness to sort out matters and reach a compromise.

The issue of reservation raised by the Gurjjar community had snowballed into two major agitations in the state in 2007 and 2008 that crippled normal life for months. The agitations by thousands of Gurjjars saw road and train traffic halted for days in several parts and violence that claimed 71 lives, many of them protesters killed in police firing.

Pilot, a Gurjjar himself, who had voiced support for the demand for reservation for the people from his community, spent a night in a Meena hamlet in Ajmer last weekend while touring his new constituency. The young MP was a guest of Baad ka Jhopda village sarpanch Ganpat Meena, with whom he had also travelled in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.

Pilot’s sudden visit comes just a week after Rajasthan Home Minister Shanti Dhariwal, aided by two ministers and top police and administration officials, held talks between 40 Gurjjar and Meena leaders over the reservation issue and peace between the two communities.

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