Date:07/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/07/stories/2007100760000900.htm

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National

Gujjars stage protest at BJP office

Staff Reporter

They are angry at not being given Scheduled Tribe status

Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

Gujjars demonstrate in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Members of Akhil Bharatiya Gujjar Sangharsh Samiti held a demonstration outside the BJP headquarters on Ashoka Road here on Saturday demanding removal of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for failing to accord ST status to Gujjars.

Led by Ramvir Singh Bidhuri MLA and Samiti president Chaudhary S.S. Jaunpuria, the protesters gathered at Jantar Mantar and marched to the BJP headquarters. They were detained and later released.

Mr. Bidhuri said Gujjars in Rajasthan were being ill-treated and false cases were being registered against them since they began the “jail bharo” agitation. He warned that the BJP would pay heavily in the next elections in Rajasthan and the Lok Sabha elections if it did not remove Ms. Raje. Mr. Jaunpuria lashed out at “the indifferent attitude of the Rajasthan administration.”