National

CBI probe sought into Raje’s role in Gujjar stir

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Rashtriya Gujjar Chetna Manch president has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Union Government to order a CBI enquiry into the role of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and other Ministers in the communal disturbances that rocked Rajasthan and neighbouring States between May 29 and June 4. The petition was posted for hearing on July 9.

Petitioner Devendra Singh Patel said the agitation came as a surprise to all major organisations and Gujjar leaders. It was started without consulting any prominent community leader and its end was equally dramatic.

Prominent leaders were unanimous in condemning the way the agitation proceeded, though it espoused their cause for inclusion of Gujjars in the Scheduled Tribe list.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party was afflicted by severe infighting, with Jaswant Singh spearheading a campaign to malign and dislodge the Chief Minister. A week before the agitation began, his wife filed an FIR in a matter relating to painting of the Chief Minister as a goddess.

The petitioner alleged that instead of handling the agitation on a political and administrative plane, as per the letter and spirit of the Constitution, the Chief Minister provoked her own Cabinet colleagues to incite Meenas and create a caste war-like situation. Her Cabinet colleagues did all that they could to make matters worse and, for this reason the BJP Government had no moral right to remain in office.

He said the agitation had done irreparable damage to the cause of Gujjars and to their reputation as a peace-loving community.

Gujjars, he alleged, were being harassed en masse, repressed and persecuted for no fault of theirs by the official machinery in the name of investigation of crimes committed during the recent disturbances. He wanted the State Government restrained from registering cases or harassing Gujjars.

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