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Rajmahal Palace row ends for now as Rajasthan unseals hotel gate
Ending a week-long tussle, the Jaipur Development Authority opened the main entrance to the Rajmahal Palace heritage hotel on Sunday. The BJP appears to have stepped in to resolve the tussle after Padmini Devi took out a rally against the JDA that spilled the confrontation between Raje government and the erstwhile royal family out in the open
The 12-day standoff between Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) and former Jaipur royals ended in a temporary truce on Sunday morning with JDA officials unsealing the gate of the Rajmahal Palace Hotel following a meeting between Padmini Devi and chief minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday night.
The JDA had seized the 12 bigahs of land adjacent to the hotel, a heritage property, on August 24 and sealed the hotel’s main gate on grounds that the gate was on land which was in the civic body’s possession. The JDA team also razed a structure on the land used as staff quarters.
Sunday’s development quickly drew political reactions, with some observers calling it a victory for the royal family and the government claiming that it provided the ex-royals a temporary relief following Padmini Devi’s meeting with the chief minister.
By Sunday afternoon, the government sent out a detailed note to media explaining that the gate of Rajmahal Palace was opened temporarily until an alternative arrangement is worked out.
The note said that the hotel gate was opened on the recommendation of a four-member committee the CM constituted on September 2 to iron issues arising out of the JDA action. The panel -- comprising urban development and housing minister Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, health minister Rajendra Rathore, industry minister Gajendra Singh Khinvsar and state BJP president Ashok Parnami -- met after the Padmini Devi’s meeting with Raje.
The panel looked at the legal aspects of the case along with additional advocate general Rajendra Prasad. The Rajasthan government and the JDA had moved the high court against a decree in favour of the ex-royals by a lower court.
The government note said that the said property earlier owned by the princely rulers of Jaipur, was acquired by the state and the family had no right of movement on the land.
The panel decided the hotel gate could be unsealed until alternative arrangement.
Following Sunday morning’s development, a Rajput body which had announced a Jaipur Bandh on September 9 to avenge the former royals who felt ‘insulted’ by the JDA’s action, called off the strike.
Reacting to the development, Padmini Devi’s daughter Diya Kumari, who is BJP MLA from Sawai Madhopur, said she was grateful to the CM and the government for understanding the case.
Kumari had a spat with JDA commissioner Shikhar Agarwal on August 24 when the hotel was sealed and described the JDA’s action as hasty. Later, her mother issued appeals in the vernacular dailies describing the JDA action as “immoral” and “repressive” as she sought support for the family’s the cause and a protest rally on September 1.
Sunday’s sudden turn in the drama fuelled speculations whether it the protest rally led by Padmini Devi on September1, or an alleged meeting of Diya Kumari with union home minister Rajnath Singh, and or with BJP national joint general secretary Saudan Singh in Jaipur on Friday that turned the tide for the erstwhile royal family.
