Gurjar on warpath again over quota

The Gurjar agitation for reservation in government jobs once again turned violent, with hundreds of protesters damaging a railway track in Bharatpur district on Monday, disrupting the movement of dozens of trains on the Delhi-Mumbai line.

The Gurjar agitation for reservation in government jobs once again turned violent, with hundreds of protesters damaging a railway track in Bharatpur district on Monday, disrupting the movement of dozens of trains on the Delhi-Mumbai line.

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The Gurjars are led by Col (retd) Kirori Singh Bainsala. A rival faction led by Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said it would join Bainsala to press the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan to concede their demands.

Bidhuri had called a sit-in at Arniya in Dausa district, about 100 km from Jaipur, on Sunday. Failing to elicit a strong response from the community, he agreed to join hands with Bainsala.

On Monday, a large group of Gurjars marched towards the railway track at Peelupura, 3 km from Raseri village in Bharatpur, and started damaging it. They stopped only when Bainsala intervened.

“Rather than damaging public property, we should press for our demand by agitating peacefully,” Bainsala said. “The state government has not responded so far and no invitation has been extended for a dialogue. The negative attitude of the government has forced us to re-launch the agitation.”

In 2008, the Bharatiya Janata Party state government passed a law providing 5% quota for Gurjars. This year in May, Bainsala reached an agreement with the new Congress government in May this year, under which 1% reservation for Gurjars was provided within the 50% reservation quota in the special backward class category.