Last year’s bitter political feud has resurfaced in Rajasthan, as it tends to happen when long-festering wounds are hastily and cursorily swept under the carpet. The Gurjjar agitation for Scheduled Tribe status last year was pacified then by the state government’s assurances of redressal. But as the dozens of deaths in police firing this past week testify, the calm thereafter was not used by the government to negotiate possible solutions, thereby keeping open lines of communication with Gurjjar leaders.The Gurjjars’ entitlement to ST status is legally problematic, and cannot be a desirable option. But as our columnist today points out, the state failed to respond to the valid resentments driving Gurjjar youth — an incompetent higher education system that has been unable to extend opportunity to them, and the associated belief that ST status was the only thing that could make a difference to their futures. Instead of mediating a solution which would deliver greater benefits to the disaffected community and standing firm on issues of principle, finding answers that lay between the all-or-nothing of ST status, the state simply pretended the problem had disappeared.The Vasundhara Raje government persuaded the Gurjjars to withdraw their agitation by holding out the promise of a committee to examine their demands. The BJP and the Congress have lobbed the issue back and forth, between state and Centre, with no real will to confront the problem. This period should have been used to begin meaningful engagement with the Gurjjar leadership to stress the futility of using disruption as a tool. It is not just that the Gurjjars have responded by being more militant in their methods, and the crossfire between them and the police has now claimed over 50 lives. It will be very unfortunate and dangerous if the message is sent out to disaffected communities that their demands would be addressed only in the eventuality of brutal violence. The government must remain firm.
