Reservation stir again

Gujjars in Rajasthan are at it again. On Sunday, they indulged in acts of arson and violence in Dholpur district of the State in support of their demand for five per cent reservations in government jobs and educational institutions. In the unprovoked violence unleashed by the agitating Gujjars, several private and government vehicles were torched while there were violent clashes with the police as well. Some among the protesters fired at the police from country-made weapons. Ever since they revived their old agitation early last week, groups of Gujjars have blocked train and road traffic in key places, often preventing the passage of inter-state traffic. Railways have diverted a number of trains while the fear of blockade of roads has led many people to avoid the vulnerable state and national highways. But what is the solution to their demand? The two-month-old Ashok Gehlot Government is clueless how to resolve the matter, with the Chief Minister keen to push the matter in the lap of the central government. The real problem is the apex court ban on the total reservation percentage increasing beyond fifty per cent. Left to themselves, rival politicians in their hunger for votes might reserve all one hundred per cent jobs and seats, dividing them proportionate to the numbers of each caste in the population. Without doubt, the Mandal reservations opened a Pandora’s box which has now become difficult to shut. The ten per cent reservations for economically weak upper castes announced by the Centre have also been challenged in the apex court, though the Centre has initiated the process to implement them. But the Gujjar agitation must be ended somehow. It is for the State government to deal with the matter before it causes further disturbances and disrupts the free flow of road and rail traffic.