As the stir by Gujjars reached its 10th day and at least 12 bodies from protest sites in Rajasthan were sent for post-mortem, the shadow of this unrest in the state loomed large over the BJP's national executive meeting in New Delhi. This despite the party's recent poll victory in Karnataka.
The agitation by Gujjars for a scheduled tribe status forced shifting of the venue from Jaipur to New Delhi and saw extensive police cordoning of the BJP headquarters and the Parliament annexe, where the meeting was held. The BJP, however, made all attempts to ignore the elephant in the room.
Party President Rajnath Singh's inaugural address had only two lines on the agitation and did not even refer to the community by name, saying instead, "The sad and unfortunate incidents of violence that have taken place on the issue of reservation have shocked not only the people of Rajasthan but also the entire country." He asked people dealing with the issue to be calm and patient. Interestingly, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was absent. She is expected to attend tomorrow's concluding session.
Earlier in the day and even when reporting for various states was being done, several party office-bearers, including a senior leader from Uttar Pradesh, tried to raise the mishandling of the issue by the Raje government, but were hushed up. "We are on a winning streak overall and do not want to spoil the focus of the meeting, which is to prepare for the coming elections," said an office-bearer.
Singh devoted most of his address to attacking the Congress-led government at the Centre on various counts and projected the BJP as the "obvious frontrunner" for the next Lok Sabha elections. Referring to the Union budget, Singh said it was faulty but had good packaging. "Perhaps our finance minister has also fallen prey to the psychology of modern marketing," he said. He said Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia's comment that growth could not be scarificed at the altar of controlling prices was painful. "I want to ask not just Mr Ahluwalia but also our finance minister and economist prime minister whether development is possible only by crushing the common man under the burden of inflation?" he said.
Singh demanded a special session of Parliament to discuss the agrarian crisis in India along with inflation.