Incidents have happened that were unthinkable in Rajasthan. The political culture of Rajasthan was accurately captured in these columns on Thursday (‘The Dausa effect’ by Pratap Bhanu Mehta). But what is being witnessed is something completely alien. Indian politics has been influenced for far too long by patently mediocre historians. It is time some heed be paid to the sociologists who’ve been a far more innovative and vibrant lot. So politicians will then understand reservation agitations cannot be handled by administrative measures alone, but have to be seen politically, for they are political problems, and exacerbated by politics.

The writer is a BJP member of Lok Sabha from Barmer, Rajasthan