Caught off guard by Mali quota stir before polls, Gehlot invokes Rahul to pitch for caste census

While the police maintained that no suicide note has been found, the family of the deceased as well as protesters insisted that Mohan, a resident of the nearby Moodiya Gandhar village, had died by suicide after getting “frustrated” over non-fulfilment of their quota demand.

“He (Mohan) was staying here at the protest site. Frustrated by the fact that the government is only giving assurances, he committed suicide,” charged Kedar Nath, the brother of the deceased.

Police officials said that while the reason for Mohan’s alleged suicide was not clear, his family members have refused to accept his body, demanding compensation.

In June last year, the protesting communities had held a similar blockade in Bharatpur seeking 12 per cent reservation proportionate to their collective population in the state, which they claim is over 1.5 crore. Rajasthan’s total population stands at over 6 crore.

This time their protest began on April 21. The protesters are also said to be divided in the absence of a clear leadership, with their younger section bent on continuing the stir while the older lot being in favour of calling it off following talks with the government.

“The district administration and the state government had held multiple discussions on April 19 and 20 with the communities and had urged them not to disrupt daily life. We had positive discussions on their demands. When they insisted on protesting, some of their leaders were taken into preventive custody. Yesterday, after another round of talks with the administration, when they were released, they went to the protest site to call off the movement. But the younger protesters didn’t listen to the main leadership,” Bharatpur district collector Alok Ranjan told The Indian Express Tuesday.

While Murari Lal Saini, a leader of the Mali community had been leading the protests since last year, many protesters did not follow his request on Monday evening to call off the demonstration, resulting in a divide among the agitators.

Top sources in the Bharatpur administration said that a 21-member protesters’ delegation has now gone to Jaipur and is currently holding talks with the state government officials including those from the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s office.

The main grudge of the protesting communities is that despite belonging to the OBC category, they have not received benefits of reservation as much as other communities.

The OBC reservation in the state has been pegged at 21 per cent. Its key beneficiaries include the Jat, Kumawat and Yadav communities.

Since the protesting communities, which come under the ambit of the current 21 per cent OBC quota, are asking for a 12 per cent reservation either within this overall share or separately, any government’s bid towards considering their demand may also result in strong opposition from other OBC communities.

“The Mali, Saini, Kushwaha, Maurya communities have a significant population in Rajasthan. All these communities are the same, but known under different names in various regions. We are also demanding that a caste census be conducted to ascertain our exact population. We are deprived of representation in various fields, which at present are not proportionate to our population,” said Shankar Lal Saini, the state president of Mahatma Phule Brigade, an outfit of the Mali community.

Notably, CM Gehlot himself belongs to the Mali community, which is spearheading these protests.

Gehlot, who is also dubbed “jaadugar (magician)” given his background as his father was a professional magician, has often said publicly that it is nothing short of “magic” that despite not belonging to a dominant caste base, he could become the CM thrice amid Rajasthan’ caste-driven politics.

At present, there are only three MLAs from the protesting communities, including CM Gehlot, which reflect their under-representation in the Assembly. Contrary to Malis and related communities’ agitation, the protests held by dominant communities like Rajput, Jat, Gujjar or Meena see the participation of multiple MLAs and MPs from their groups in solidarity with their respective castes. Gehlot shies away from throwing his weight behind his community’s protests for fear of upsetting the dominant communities of the state.

The communities such as Mali and Saini are thinly spread across the state, but unlike the dominant OBC groups such as Jats, they do not have large concentrations in multiple Assembly constituencies, which scuppers their chances of securing Assembly tickets from major parties, which mostly field candidates from dominant castes.

During the current Mali community-led stir, the protesters have refrained from explicitly calling Gehlot a Mali caste leader, maintaining instead that the CM is the leader of every caste.

On his pat, stung by the stir ahead of the Assembly polls due in December, Gehlot has urged the protesters to end their stir, appealing to them to keep patience. “I would like to appeal to everyone from the Mali, Saini, Kushwaha and Maurya communities that Rahul Gandhi is himself saying in Bangalore, the Congress has written a letter to the Prime Minister that during the next census, caste census should also be included. They (protesters) should understand that this is a very big step and our leader Rahul Gandhi ji has raised this issue. Our president Kharge sahab has written a letter to the Prime Minister. They should keep some patience,” he told reporters Monday.

Gehlot said it is not right to jam highways, inviting the protesters for talks with him and his ministers. “All their just demands will be accepted. We will examine the demands and it is my duty to ensure that every caste, religion within Rajasthan get justice. I would appeal to them to end the highway jam and engage in talks,” he added.