Barely a hundred kilometres from Pilupura, the epicentre of the Gurjjar agitation for the past 13 days, prevails an eerie silence. Amidst the smoke of incense sticks, 20 bodies are kept in wooden boxes and on melting ice slabs, surrrounded by over 100 grieving relatives, on NH11 that runs through Jaipur and Agra. Even as the dust around the railway tracks of Pilupura has begun to settle following the cremation of 16 bodies on Tuesday, the madness in Sikandara is far from over. The leaderless Gurjjar mob that has been holding the highway to ransom here has said it won’t allow cremation of the 20 killed in the police firing on May 24 till the community’s demand for ST status is met.The post-mortems were done on the 20 bodies on Sunday, though the reports are yet to be handed over. Sarvan Singh, sarpanch of Sikandara village, says they will hand on to the bodies till the Rajasthan Government gives them quota. The 20 were killed in Sikandara on May 24 when the police opened fire on a mob protesting against the firing in Pilupura a day earlier. The residents of Gurjjar villages around the highway immediately blocked it and the railway line in Bandicui nearby. Far from the controlled protest by the Gurjjars in Pilupura, the agitation in Sikandara is violent, with people pelting stones and deflating tyres of vehicles passing by. Just 20 km away is Patoli, which was the epicentre of Gurjjar leader Kirori Lal Bainsla’s agitation last year.While food and diesel supplies to the area have been cut for over 10 days, Singh says they have the support of their “mahasangh” leader Umrao Singh Doi in Dausa. Greiving relatives too say they are determined to continue. “My brother was in the Army and was visiting the village when the agitation began. He was killed by the police only because he was trying to show solidarity with the Gurjjars who died in Pilupura. I will not take away his body till the CM sends us a letter approving the reservation,” says Topan Singh, sitting next to the body of his brother Harimohan Gurjjar. “My son was shot in the head and they didn’t return his body till we put pressure on them. I will not let my son’s sacrifice go waste,” insists Nanga Ram (75). His 40-year-old son Gokul was among those whose bodies were released on Monday from Jaipur by the police. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh’s Gurjjar Mahasabha vice-resident Virender Singh offered a prize of Rs 5 crore for Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s head during a public function in Saraswa in Saharanpur. The security of the CM has reportedly been beefed up.
