In Rajasthan, the Congress party has formed the government with difficulty but its troubles are far from over. Earlier, the Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, were at loggerheads on the issue of the allocation of portfolios and now the state is facing heat in the quota stir. Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla and his supporters are protesting on rail tracks in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district. The blockade affected the movement of trains. Bainsla said that he will not move till the five per cent reservation demand is accepted by the state government.
The agitators also blocked the Jaipur-Delhi, Jodhpur-Bhilwara, Ajmer-Bhilwara highway on Saturday. In several parts of the state, protests have turned violent as well. According to a Hindustan Times report, in Rajasthan’s Dholpur district, Gujjar protesters demanding a five percent reservation in government jobs and education institutions for their community, opened fire, threw stones and burnt vehicles which injured around half-a-dozen policemen.
Bainsla said that the Congress had promised 5 per cent reservation to the community in its election manifesto so the state government was liable to fulfill its promise “so that the people can return home gracefully”. The BJP leader Arun Chaturvedi said, “The Congress had promised reservation in its election manifesto so it should find a legal roadmap (to do so).”
The Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot, is a prominent Gujjar leader and despite this the government has failed to address let alone quell the ongoing unrest. The government’s inability to satisfy a community leader shows how inept the leadership is in Rajasthan. As the protest is turning violent, the government is watching from the margins without making any effort to reach a consensus with the community. If they cannot fulfill promise then they should make false promises in the first place. How seriously this CM takes the issue is made clear in the following tweet.
https://twitter.com/ExSecular/status/1094825265413349376
The video shows clearly that the CM thinks that the Gujjars’ demand for something he promised them can be laughed off and ignored. Ashok Gehlot says nothing upon being questioned regarding the Gujjar protest, he in fact looks to his henchmen and laughs it off.
All this coupled with the government’s failure to address swine flu in the state. Rajasthan is writhing in the grip of swine flu. So far, the menace of Swine flu has claimed the lives of 105 people across the state. swine flu in Rajasthan has almost reached epidemic proportions but the state government has remained steadfast in not acknowledging the problem. Notably, the media has also turned a blind eye on this monumental incompetence of the state government’s.
According to a Times of India report, Rajasthan is one of the worst-affected states due to swine flu as 42% of deaths reported in the country happened in the state. It seems the situation is still out of control from state government’s hands. The opposition party is attacking the Congress government and Ashok Gehlot specifically over the issue of H1N1. Both the ruling and the opposition parties are indulged in blame game. Former health minister Kalicharan Saraf accused the current health minister of being lackadaisical in fighting the epidemic in the state.
Last month, former CM Vasundhara Raje also attacked the Congress government over its failure to tackle the Swine flu menace in the state. She said, “The state is in the grip of swine flu which is spreading at a fast rate, while the Congress government is in ‘resting’ mode.” She also said, “Had the Congress-led state government been alert, swine flu would not have claimed so many lives in the state.”
There are many other important issues which are causing problems to the people of the state, but instead of addressing those issues Ashok Gehlot is more interested in issuing warnings to the protesters who are raising those issues.
For more details: Ashok Gehlot threatens protesters with indefinite jail time
