Division sums

In Deedwana, Jats and Rajputs confronted each other after the murder of two prominent Jat leaders in June 2006. When the police failed to arrest the accused — the Jat community claimed they were Rajputs — the Jat Mahasabha warned the state government that it would lay siege in Deedwana. Instead of taking any concrete measures, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje sent emissaries, PWD minister Rajendra Singh Rathore and Water Resources Minister Sanwarlal Jat, to talk to the respective communities. They also held meetings with the Rajput Sabha and Jat Mahasabha where the Rajput community warned the ministers against taking any hasty steps while the Jat leaders warned that they would march to Jaipur with lathis if the accused are not caught. With the killers still at large, there is a fragile peace between the two communities.

Before this, there was trouble closer to Jaipur when Jains and tribals confronted each other over worshipping rights at the Rishabhdev Temple. The temple, about 70 kms from Jaipur, is an important religious place for both Jains and tribals. Though a Supreme Court verdict in January 2006 asked the Rajasthan Devasthan Department to hand over the temple to Jains, the state government posted a small police force outside the temple and let the issue simmer. On February 7, the police was taken by surprise by the tribals who launched themselves through the nearby Bilak hills and tried to storm the temple. The police panicked and lobbed tear gas shells in which several protesters were injured. The way the situation was handled resulted in a tense stand-off between Jains and tribals that continues even now.

On July 22 the same year, in the wake of the rape of a Sikh girl, allegedly by the son of the Mewat Board chairman, a Shiv Sena-VHP sponsored bandh threatened to turn the issue into a communal flare-up. The Sikh and Jat blogs are full of comments from people who clearly resented the perceived support of the government to the bandh called by the Sena and VHP.

“These were not stray incidents that suddenly flared up one day and cooled down the next. The issues were deliberately kept simmering by the government until they spiralled out of control and the communities were at each other’s throats. Emissaries would be sent who would only end up antagonising each other,” says Rajiv Gupta, sociologist at Rajasthan University, Jaipur.

Gurjjar MLA of the BJP, Prahlad Gunjal, points out, “The Gurjjar reservation was never supposed to escalate into a violent agitation. But we never knew when the Meena community was propped up against us… it just happened and the agitation spiralled out of control. Our own government is partly to be blamed for this. Regarding the Gurjjar agitation issue, instead of addressing it maturely, the government played caste politics which resulted in such large-scale losses,” he says.

There is more trouble brewing. The Gurjjar reservation agitation has encouraged the Brahmins to demand their share. Pandit Suresh Mishra, president of Brahman Mahasabha, has proposed reservations for Brahmins on “economic consideration”. And Devi Singh Bhatti, leader of the Rajput Sabha, is demanding reservation for Rajputs.