Understanding the Gujjar agitation

Rajasthan has been hit by the Gujjars protests over various demands from November 2. Rail and road traffic along various parts of the state were disrupted due to the ongoing agitation. The agitators occupied the railway track at Peelupura in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district. As many as 29 trains on the Delhi-Mumbai route were diverted and three cancelled. Buses from five major Rajasthan Roadways depots of Dausa, Hindaun, Karauli, Bharatpur and Bayana were stopped and the bus service on the Jaipur-Agra route was halted. The community, which has been demanding reservation as a ‘most backward class’ (MBC) community, said its agitation will continue till its demands are met.

So what is this Gujjar agitation all about?

Gurjars are a farming and trading community who are classified by the government under Other Backward Class or OBC. However, the community did not and does not face as much exclusion or discrimination as faced by the majority of the OBC communities. But the Gurjar community feels it has been economically and educationally left behind and it wants to be reclassified as a Scheduled Tribe. 

The state government proposed an economic package that will be spent to improve schools, clinics, roads and other infrastructure in Gurjar-dominated areas. However, However, Gurjar leaders rejected this.

Apart from the government, the members of Meena caste, which is under the Scheduled Tribe oppose Scheduled Tribe status for the Gujjars, as their quota will be divided.

In 2007, Gurjars in Rajasthan fought police and members of the Meena tribe with at least 26 people were killed in that violence. 

O 23 May 2008 police fired on Gurjar protesters demanding ST status and in retaliation, the protesters lynched a policeman in the Bharatpur district. In response, police shot at protesters leaving 15 killed on the spot. The army was called in as another 15 people were killed when police shot at a mob of protesters trying to torch a police station in Sikandra.

Gurjars again went on to agitate in 2010, blocking trains on the Jaipur-Delhi and Mumbai-Delhi routes. However, there was no violence in 2010. In May 2015, a similar protest was organized and over thousands of Gujjars blocked railway tracks halting train traffic.

Following numerous protests earlier, the Rajasthan government on October 26, 2018, passed a bill which increased the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota from 21 per cent to 26 per cent. In December 2018, the Rajasthan government also approved one per cent reservation for Gujjars and four other backward castes. 

These communities are getting one per cent separate reservation under the legal limit of 50 per cent reservation meant for the most-backwards category in addition to OBC reservation.

In February 2019, the Rajasthan Assembly passed a bill giving a five per cent quota in government jobs and educational institutes to the Gujjars and four other communities agitating for it.

The state government has tried thrice in the past to give 5% reservation to Gujjars as a ‘Special Backward Class,’ but the legislation was struck down every time by the Rajasthan High Court, which ruled that the quota had not only exceeded the 50% limit but was also not supported by quantifiable data.

The Gujjars are demanding that the Rajasthan government should get the Gujjars included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, fill the backlog of vacancies and give the benefit of five per cent reservation to the Most Backward Classes (MBCs) in the pending recruitment process. 

The Gujjar Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti headed by Col KS Bainsla Samiti had given an ultimatum to the Rajasthan government that it would re-start its agitation if all demands were not met by November 1.

From November 2, the agitation has been revived as they blocked the rail route in the state’s Bharatpur as part of their agitation till all the demands are met.