June 10, 2007
Rajasthan BJP Suspends Two Gujjar MLAs
Jaipur
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Rajasthan Sunday
suspended two of its Gujjar MLAs, who had participated in a
community meeting to demand tribal status, for anti-party
activities.
"The decision to suspend MLAs Attar Singh Bhadana and Prahlad Gunjal
was taken after they participated in a Gujjar maha panchayat (mass
meeting in Ranpur village of Kota district) Saturday," Kailash Nath
Bhatt, state BJP spokesperson, told IANS Sunday.
The maha panchayat had decided that it would not allow Chief
Minister Vasundhara Raje to enter her home district of Jhalawar till
a high-powered committee on the community's demands does not submit
its report. At the meeting, the Gujjars also decided that if the
report was not favourable, no member of the community would vote for
her. And if the report was not submitted within the stipulated three
months, they would launch an agitation from Sep 4 to press for
tribal status.
"The party has taken the matter seriously and asked the MLAs to
reply in seven days," Bhatt said. "We have also asked 20 other party
workers and leaders including cabinet ministers Kirori Lal Meena,
Kalu Lal Gujjar and Virendra Meena to maintain discipline," Bhatt
said.
The ministers of the rival Meena community, which enjoys tribal
status and its accompanying benefits, had openly said that they
would not tolerate any move to include Gujjars as tribals. The
Gujjar minister, Kalu Lal Gujjar, had threatened to resign if his
community was not granted tribal status.
In Rajasthan, Meenas are a dominant tribal community constituting
between 12-14 percent of the state's population. They have been
enjoying Scheduled Tribe status since 1950s.
Gujjars launched violent protests in the state from May 29-June 4
demanding tribal status that would fetch them better job and
educational opportunities.
The agitation paralysed Rajasthan for a week with major roads
blocked and train services disrupted. At least 25 people were killed
and hundreds injured in the violence.
On June 4, the state government and Gujjars reached an
understanding, according to which a retired high court judge would
head a three-member high-powered committee to look into the demands.
The committee is to submit its report in three months.
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