Gujjar angst spills over to Haryana

CHANDIGARH: Although the Gujjar resentment has spread over to certain belts of Haryana, nothing untoward happened on Saturday. Their protest is an expression of solidarity with their brethren in Rajasthan who are demanding reservation.
On Friday, some violence was reported in Yamunanagar and Faridabad, but peace was restored the next day.
Said Ram Kishan Gujjar, parliamentary secretary (agriculture) and himself a Gujjar: "Our only demand is that the Rajasthan government should give reservation to the Gujjars.In fact, the BJP had made such a promise in their election manifesto. But now they are backtracking." The Gujjars of Rajasthan are not covered under any kind of reservation despite comprising 12-15% of the total population while Meenas who have been given reservation are just 10%.
However, the Gujjars living in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat get reservation either under the backward category or the scheduled tribe category. Pradeep Chaudhary, a member of the Gujjar Mahasabha, said they fully supported the protest of their brethren in Rajasthan. "It was a long-pending demand and should be fulfilled," he added.
On Saturday, there was a major protest in Gurgaon when the local MLA along with 400 people went to the deputy commissioner's office to submit a memorandum. However, there was no untoward incident, said Gurgaon SP Hanif Qureshi.
In Yamunanagar, SP KV Ramna said though there was some violence on Friday, things were brought under control after imposing Section 144 of the CrPC on Saturday. In Faridabad also, there was a small protest at Anganpur chowk but no violence was reported, sources in the police said.
In Haryana, Gujjars have a sizable population in Panchkula, Faridabad and Samalkha in Panipat.