Kirori Singh Bainsla (Retd), turned down the Centre’s invitation for talks and he also refused to travel to Jaipur to meet the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ms Vasundhara Raje.
With the death toll rising to 38, the Centre rushed additional companies of paramilitary forces to Rajasthan to bring the violence under control. On Sunday, 21 companies (about 2,500 personnel) of the paramilitary forces, drawn from the Border Security Force (BSF), Rapid Action Force (RAF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), are stationed in violence-hit districts of the state.
The “rail roko” call given by Col. Col. Bainsla resulted in the disruption of rail traffic between New Delhi and various destinations in Rajasthan on Sunday. The rail traffic was disrupted ahead of the anniversary of last year's Gujjar agitation, which had claimed 26 lives between May 9 and June 4, 2007. Railway officials here said at least seven trains passing through Rajasthan, including the AmritsarMumbai Golden Temple Mail and Nizamuddin-Bandra Garib Rath Express, were cancelled in the interest of passenger safety.
The Centre has issued advisories to the states neighbouring Rajathan — Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi — to remain alert in order to prevent any untoward incident in the wake of the Gujjar violence.
The Rajasthan Gurjar Arakashan Sangarsh Samiti, which is spearheading the agitation, has rejected the Rajasthan government's special relief package of Rs 282 crores for Gujjar-dominated districts, as was suggested by the Ramdas Agarwal committee. The committee was constituted on the recommendation of the Justice Chopra committee,which had rejected a demand for ST status for Gujjars last year. Instead, the Chopra committee favoured the provision of special relief for the uplift of Gujjars.
The CPI(M) has condemned the police firing in Rajasthan on Friday and Saturday, and a politburo statement said,0 “The Vasundhara Raje government, which has earned notoriety in police firings, is solely responsible for the present killings. The BJP government has not learnt any lesson from last year's incidents and completely bungled in tackling the agitation.