Gurjar violence: BJP in damage control mode

The death toll in violence related to an agitation by members of the Gurjar community in Rajasthan to accord them the Scheduled Tribe status climbed to 20 even as violence spread to Delhi and senior BJP leaders rushed to Jaipur for damage control.

BJP General Secretary (Organisation) Ram Lal and party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar rushed to Jaipur to do some damage control, while four Rajasthan ministers "" Digambar Singh, S M Jat, Madan Dilwar and L N Dave "" met representatives of the Gurjar community in the Dausa district circuit house to break the deadlock.

After a 90-minute meeting, they said that some progress had been made. Detractors of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, meanwhile, camped in Delhi and sought an audience with senior leaders.

According to a senior leader, party President Rajnath Singh met former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani this evening. "The party is in a fix because it is not just the question of the Gurjars getting ST status. The Meena community, which forms 12 per cent of the state's population, has the ST status and is opposing it, whereas Gurjars constitute only 2-4 per cent of the population," said a senior BJP leader.

The party is thinking of shifting the blame to the Centre since it requires an Act of Parliament to accord ST status to any caste group. Dausa MP Sachin Pilot, however, says that the BJP government in Rajasthan had made this an election issue and that the blame for the violence lies squarely with them.

"It is an unshakeable belief among the Gurjars who are right now OBCs that they can progress as much as the Meena community if they get the ST status. They feel that the Meena community could progress because they had the benefit of reservations from Independence," said a BJP leader.

Sources add that a group of ministers that the Vasundhara Raje government had set up to look into the matter has not been notified yet and some of its member ministers have no idea that they are members of the group. "It is indeed a big problem now and we foresee a lot of trouble for the Vasundhara government even if the violence is contained," said a senior BJP office-bearer.

Meanwhile, protesters blocked traffic all the way into South Delhi areas including Khanpur and Malviya Nagar and also the Noida road.