Gujjar Protests - the worst outcome of government's reservation policies

News Analysis
Original by - Senthilraja



The outcome of the Gujjar Agitation has led to more than 30 deaths, by none other than the policers. I was infuriated at this, because, the agitators are not rowdy’s or anti-nationals, to shoot at sight. They are just one of the communities in india, which was struggling for a the ST status. How come, the police kill those people.
It all seems, there are failures at many levels. First the ealier protests by Gujjar leaders are completely ignored, and mishandled. And for one year, their demands had been forgotten. Even after the protests started, the situation could have been dealt differently.
Inheriting British Totalatarian:
The whole british based beurocracy is devised for imperialism and totalatarian. Its aim is to bring the total population in to their hold, so that they can rule without any opposition. But, we are inheriting the same legacy still now.
Whenever any protests happen, instead of understanding the problem behind, we tend to be a totalatarian. Ie, the attitude that people should not protest against government in any circumstances.
There is some level of reason for the britishers to do that.. But there is no standing on an independant government to do the same..
The Chief minister Vasundara raje had issued statements, that the interests of the state is top priority for her. She could not compromise on that on this gujjar agitation.
But, are these gujjars not a part of the state? Arent they protesting for their interests? Is state separate from the people?
The gujjars are not against any other community. So the security of other communities is also not under question, and this protest cannot be termed a caste war.
Learning on this incident:
There are many things to learn from this Gujjar protest.
1. The reservation should be removed at any cost.
If there had been no reservation, there is no reason for these gujjars to protest. The main area of concern is that Meena community through their votebank, got the ST status, using which they got as much benefits, leaving out the gujjar community.
So Reservation marginalises one community and promotes other, thus creating conflicts.
Earlier, the reservation was justified by diverting attention to brahmins. But now, the myth of Brahminism being exploded, the dragon came from the underneath.. Other sections of people who are affected by this are coming out in protest, which the intellectuals do not have any reason to suppress just as they did to brahmins.
2. Empowering the people:
This is the only solution where we can bring the people out of poverty. Education should not be for jobs, rather empowering oneself. For that, all means should be provided to the people.
3. Decentralising the governance:
The idea of everything should be done by the government should be thrown off. This type of governance, enslaves the people. This is the reason, why we are seeing so much protests like “Government did not clean ditches, or government did not lay the road or pipeline”.. Instead, the powers should be decentralised, enabling the local people to fulfill their needs themselves.
In this case, if the powers had been decentralised, and became participatory, the gujjars would not have felt isolated or marginalised. Because, they would have become part of the governance.
4. Engaging Castes Positively:
The Castes were NOT evil. They are an arrangement, where people lived socially and Communally, doing different jobs needed for the society.
In this case, the gujjars were mostly workers, and the meenas were mostly land owners. Gujjars supply milk to meenas, and work in their lands for lease. There was strong interdependance, where both are benefitted equally.
The problem arised only when Meenas rose to government jobs using ST quota, and Gujjars left behind.
If both caste has been seen in total, and approached positvely, the problem could have been solved, by strengthening the existing interdependance of both the communities.
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As such, the BJP should have a clear cut policy on governance. Except for Gujarat and Himachal, other states simply dont have the vision, They simply do what the britishers had designed for us.
This should change.