Ms. Raje shows the way

I have always held that Raje is a much better role model to women than Ms. Pratibha Patil or Ms. Sonia Gandhi. Trying times are the real test of a person, and Raje has handled and is handling the trying times in Rajasthan exceptionally well.

She was quick to act when the terror strikes happened, she restored calm and asked action from the centre. She reassured the people and did not hinder the investigations. It was for having asked the centre for action that she was reprimanded, albeit wrongly. Misogynist Mr. Patil who tried to hit her by irony, saying, may be she was shaken, there were no such directions from the centre, must have faced immense embarrassment when the evidence about the home ministry’s order was made public by the media. She was relentless and she has been looking into her states interest all along.

Ms. Raje who handled the post terror strike situation very well, was posed another challenge. That of the Gujjar agitation. Mr. Bhainsala crossed all lines of decent protests and still compared his right to protest to that of Gandhiji’s satyagraha. And the centre was fueling the whole incident through Mr. Pilot instead of pacifying it. Instead of giving any directions on the issue the centre sought to play petty politics.

The allegations that she had promised the ST status to the Gujjars in order to come to power is actually not true, she had promised to look into the matter and take care of the welfare of the Gujjars. And in that aspect she has been more than fair to the Gujjar communinty. After coming to power she set up a commission to look into the matter of ST status – Chopra commission. The findings of the commission were that the status of the group were far from those necessary for ST status and that the status should not be awarded. In the report that was submitted in December 2007, the commission also observed that the Gujjars were indeed a backward caste and some relief packages should be given to them. The report was forwarded to the centre and Raje has alo set up a board under the leadership of Ramdas Agarwal and a relief package of Rs. 282 crores for their welfare. The recommendations of the commission were also carried out. The Gujjars were given their fair share.

Recently the media has been at its negative best. While some say that the move is only symbolic and time buying technique others have written whole articles saying that she is not committed to the issue because she wrote to the PM and not the tribal ministry! It would be hard to say what motivates such articles but they are definitely false. Even when Mr. Bhainsla called for a strike and after the strike, Ms. Raje has called him to have peace talks. Mr. Bhainsla has refused to talk until a letter was sent to the centre. Ms. Raje has done just that the very next day and asked for the centre to intervene. This was required as the state was pretty much burning. About 50 km of railway track has been uprooted, police was attacked with stones and an officer was beaten to death. At this point Raje did the right thing and took the immediate possible solution by asking the centre to intervene.

And it is not as if the ball was thrown in centre’s court, the ST status can be provided or refused by the centre alone. Moreover the matter concerns more than one state and in such a case the onus is on the centre to take a call on the issue. So as far as political commitment to the issue is concerned Raje has done well by doing her part completely.

Other problem is with the deaths, it would be interesting to pay attention to the reason why these deaths have happened. When you examine the articles you notice that the police had to open fire when people started beating up police and when a police officer was beaten to death. It is not as if Raje has been spearheading the violence on the Gujjars or a certain personal vendetta was being vented. If the movement is now peaceful then it is because of the number of forces that have been deployed.

It is left to be seen what Mr. Sachin Pilot would do at this time, with it apparent in front of him that the status can be awarded only unfairly. In either way the Congress stands to lose the trust of the people. By awarding the status they would be going against the principles of reservation and falling to unfair demands and if they do not, they should control the protesters. Mr. Sachin pilot or some one from the centre should put the protesters down and explain why it should not come up.

The caste based politics in the age of reservation can only be destructive.