There has been much written, and aired, about recent incidents in eastern Rajasthan. Like all public outpourings, not all of it is accurate, either in a political or sociological sense. Myths tend to get made when emotions are heightened. But unless we shatter myths we don’t get closer to understanding the storms raging.

For starters it must be made clear that there was no commitment from the BJP to include Gurjjars a Scheduled Tribe (ST). A re-reading of the party manifesto for 2003 assembly elections makes that clear. Party policy, and commitments, must be read from that document, and that document alone. It was also mentioned in this newspaper that the Meenas are the only ST community in Rajasthan. That is also not accurate, for there are significant others. But the Meenas mentioned are certainly the most influential, politically and economically. And therein lies the genesis of this tale.

The epicentre of this agitation lies in the districts of Rajasthan where the Gurjjar and the Meena live side by side. There has been no violence in districts with significant Gurjjar populations, but which have no Meena presence. And this is also not an issue in areas outside of Rajasthan that have a far higher number of Gurjjars. Like all reservation-agitations, this too is about politics. This too is about empowerment, but as it is understood in the district. And the district sees empowerment very differently from how the chatterati does. It is not about entering the Union council of ministers, but being in the district and getting called ‘Collector Sahib’ or ‘SP Sahib’. It is not about gender and all those goody-goody things, but about getting your sarpanch, pradhan or zila pramukh elected even when the seat is reserved for STs. It is about sending legislators from seats that are reserved, as well as those that are not. So the Meena neighbour has a lot more of his kin in Jaipur to help him remove that teacher, nurse, gram sewak or patwari. That is power, not sitting in Delhi discussing esoteric subjects. But the entry into those portals is severely restricted, what with the Jat now an OBC and the Meena dominant in the ST ranks.

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