Buying time

Rajasthan: Gujjars call off their agitation after the government agrees to file a review petition against the court verdict on reservation.

THE Gujjar community of Rajasthan, which was once again on the warpath following a High Court verdict that went against its demand for 5 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions, called off its rail blockade agitation after the Ashok Gehlot government assured its leaders that it would file a review petition in the same court. As a direct response to the December 22 court verdict, Gujjars began camping on the railway tracks at Pilukapura village in Bharatpur district, paralysing passenger and freight traffic on the Mumbai-Delhi route. They confined their agitation to the State borders although initial reports said the agitation would take place in the national capital as well.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Mahesh Bhagwati held that Gujjars could not be given special reservation and that the Act of 2008 had no sub-stratum of quantifiable data to justify reservation that there was no irrefutable data which could justify granting five per cent reservations to Gujjars.

It was referring to the Rajasthan Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, Special Backward Classes and Economically Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions in the State and of Appointment and Posts in the Services under the State) Act, 2008.

The Bench further directed the State government to carry out a survey within a year to collect and provide data on the educational and economic background of Gujjars. The survey was intended to establish the backwardness of Gujjars and other pastoral and nomadic communities in education and government employment.

A deadlock following the agitation was finally resolved after Colonel (retired) Kirori Singh Bainsla, whose Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti has been spearheading the agitation, reached an agreement with a three-member ministerial committee after four rounds of talks. I have called off the agitation. I am satisfied with what the State government has offered us, Bainsla said after a meeting with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and the Committee of Ministers appointed by the State government.

The government gave the Gujjar leaders an assurance that it would file a review petition in the court for special reservation, citing the instances of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu where the quantum of reservation had exceeded the apex court ceiling of 50 per cent. It was agreed that the 1 per cent quota for Special Backward Classes (SBCs) would stay. The government promised to collate quantifiable data on the Gujjar population within six months and present them before the State Backward Classes Commission as ordered by the court. The Backward Classes Commission will prepare a report on the inclusion of certain castes and communities under the SBC, which was created under the 2008 Act. The government also agreed to send a fresh proposal to the Central government for a constitutional amendment for the inclusion of the SBC category in the schedule. This, of course, is contingent on a final decision by the High Court.

The other demands of the Gujjars, including those relating to the withdrawal of cases against those who participated in previous agitations, will be met in a phased manner. The agreement the community leaders reached with the committee includes providing jobs for the next of kin of those who died in the previous rounds of the agitation. The government has also agreed to step up educational and medical facilities in Gujjar-populated areas. A committee headed by the Chief Secretary will monitor the implementation of the agreement.

The agitation continued for 17 days because there was no breakthrough in the main demand for 5 per cent reservation. Gehlot made it clear that he would not bring in fresh legislation on the demand. He would instead wait for the final disposal of the issue by the High Court.

The Gujjar agitation began essentially in 2003 over a demand for the inclusion of the community in the Scheduled Tribe category. During the election campaign that year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised S.T. status to Gujjars on coming to power. But even after the BJP formed a government headed by Vasundhara Raje Scindia, the demand remained unmet. In September 2006, Gujjars launched a mild protest, which by May 2007 took a violent turn. Twenty-six people, including a few policemen, lost their lives in the violence. The agitation soon spread to neighbouring States. Angered by the police action against the agitators, Gujjars from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi launched violent protests in support of their Rajasthan brethren. The agitation since 2006 has claimed close to 70 lives.

Major casualties in the Gujjar agitation were reported during the tenure of the BJP government (2003-08). The agitation threatened to escalate into a full-blown caste war as the Meena community, which is economically and politically dominant, was vehemently opposed to Gujjars being included in the S.T. list. Matters took a serious turn when districts such as Dausa, which have dominant Meena populations, imposed a social and economic boycott on the Gujjar community.

Unlike their counterparts in Himachal Pradesh or Jammu and Kashmir, who are included in the S.T. list of those States, Gujjars in the rest of the country are not deemed as Scheduled Tribes. In Rajasthan they are categorised as OBCs and share the benefits of reservation with Jats and others. However, Gujjars felt that the benefits of OBC classification had not percolated to them. They demanded 4 per cent reservation carved out from the OBC share exclusively for them, a move the Jat community opposed.

The BJP government appointed a three-man committee headed by a retired judge of the Rajasthan High Court, Justice Jasraj Chopra, to contain the situation arising out of the agitation. The Chopra Committee rejected the demand of Gujjars for inclusion in the S.T. list but recommended 5 per cent reservation for them and other hitherto pastoral communities such as Rebari/Raikas, Lohars and Banjaras. This was not implemented as it would have caused reservation to exceed the limit of 50 per cent set by the apex court. The committee also recommended a Rs.282-crore special package of benefits for the community and suggested measures to alleviate its backwardness. This did not satisfy the agitating Gujjars. They rejected the package in December 2007, triggering a fresh round of clashes. Some 43 persons lost their lives in the agitation that followed in 2008.

By June-July 2008, the BJP made it clear that S.T. status was out of question and so the quota limit itself was enhanced to 68 per cent, which many opposed as constitutionally untenable. The original demand for S.T. status got gradually reduced to a demand for 5 per cent reservation. The State government created two new backward class categories under the Rajasthan Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, Special Backward Classes and Economically Backward Classes Reservation Act. It announced 5 per cent reservation for the four pastoral communities under the SBC, and 14 per cent reservation for the poor among the upper castes such as Brahmins, Rajputs, Mathurs and Vaishyas, under the EBC. Happy with the announcement, Gujjars called off their agitation. The Vasundhara Raje government won a reprieve.

Meanwhile, differences rose among the Gujjar leaders as it was perceived that what they had been given was perhaps not what they had demanded.

The BJP suffered reverses in the December 2008 Assembly elections, particularly in the Gujjar-dominated districts. BJP candidates were rejected and a number of independents were elected from these constituencies. Some of them helped Gehlot form the government.

The December 2010 agitation was triggered by two High Court orders, one issued in October 2009 and the other on December 22, 2010, both of which rejected a petition seeking 5 per cent reservation. The earlier order, interim in nature, stayed the operation of the State government's notification. The Gehlot government did not appeal against that. It, however, decided to provide 1 per cent reservation to Gujjars in government jobs, ensuring that the 50 per cent ceiling was not crossed, and decided to wait for the court's approval regarding the remaining 4 per cent. The government has already provided 49 per cent reservation, with 27 per cent for the OBCs, 15 per cent for the S.Cs and 7.5 per cent for the S.Ts.

In its December 22 order, the High Court maintained that the government could continue with the 1 per cent reservation.

Rajasthan, like the rest of the BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh] States, faces a serious unemployment problem. The latest National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) round on employment and unemployment in India showed that the State had the second highest number of self-employed persons in rural areas after Himachal Pradesh.

A Planning Commission paper on Rajasthan pointed out that the agriculture and livestock sector, which employed 66 per cent of the rural workforce, was characterised by low productivity. The growth of employment in the manufacturing sector had declined and the unemployment level was rather high among rural youth. The Planning Commission estimated that even with a projected growth rate of 7.4 per cent a year in the Eleventh Plan, there would still be a shortage of 7.11 lakh jobs. In order to achieve a zero unemployment situation, the State needed to generate at least eight lakh livelihoods. In this situation, it is not surprising that economically marginal communities view reservation as a source of guaranteed livelihood.