The UPA government’s escapist attitude vis a vis the Gurjjar agitation is baffling. Instead of fulfilling its constitutional mandate by stepping in to resolve the issue, the Centre is busy obfuscating facts to disown any responsibility.

The recent violence in Rajasthan and Haryana in the wake of the Gurjjar agitation could have been avoided if the Centre had initiated appropriate steps in the aftermath of the Gurjjar agitation in mid-2007. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje made persistent attempts to draw the UPA government’s attention to the seriousness of the issue, even as she initiated affirmative steps to reach out to the Gurjjars.

It was the Congress government led by Shiv Charan Mathur that categorically rejected the Gurjjars’ demand for reservations under ST category about two decades back. The present crisis has its genesis in that decision.

As per official records, on September 29 1981, the then Chief Minister Shiv Charan Mathur got a file from the then social welfare minister asserting that the Gurjjars were basically milk-sellers and kept cattle. “They are financially well-off and suffer from no shyness of contact with people of other castes. They also do not have any primitive traits so that they could be considered for inclusion in ST list.” Mathur appended a note to the file saying: “I agree.”

Eighteen years later, on December 3 1999, the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment wrote a letter to the Rajasthan social welfare department. It pertained to a letter sent by the Rajasthan government recommending the inclusion of certain castes in the SC and ST category. The list included the recommendation to include Gurjjars in the ST category. The then NDA regime at the Centre requested the state government to furnish population figures and ethnographic material to the Centre.

... contd.