INDIA:THOUSANDS OF low-caste protesters besieged India's capital New Delhi yesterday, blocking major roads into the city in continuation of their agitation for the government to lower their status so they can qualify for affirmative action schemes guaranteeing jobs and other economic benefits to the underprivileged.
Thirty-nine members of the agitating nomadic Gujjar tribe died in clashes with police in neighbouring Rajasthan state last week, protesting governmental refusal to "downgrade" their caste.
Reclassifying their hereditary, second-lowest caste status in the country, known as Other Backward Classes, would assure the Gujjars government jobs, preferential university admission and other pecuniary benefits.
Last year, 26 people died in similar Gujjar protests after which the authorities recommended a €45 million aid package for the community. But they ruled out caste reclassification on the grounds that Gujjars were financially solvent, and hence ineligible for state patronage.
"We are willing to take the bullets and beatings to make sure our demands are met," Jeetendra Pradhan, a Gujjar protester, said, adding that unless they resorted to violence the authorities would ignore their legitimate claims.
Over 45,000 police personnel fired tear gas on unruly Gujjar mobs that burnt tyres, hurled stones at cars and squatted on roads disrupting traffic for almost the entire day across Delhi, forcing many offices and business establishments to close.
The security situation in the capital was serious enough for the US embassy to advise its personnel to "maintain a low profile, and avoid areas of traffic disruptions and political protest". The army was deployed last week across Rajasthan to quell Gujjar protests that paralysed all traffic between the state capital Jaipur and Agra, the city of the famed Taj Mahal monument, and on the highway linking the northern region to India's financial and entertainment capital, Mumbai.
Across Rajasthan, a popular destination for Western tourists, hotels reported mass cancellations because of the protests.
The head of the Gujjar affirmative action front, former colonel KS Bainsla who, along with 13 others, has been charged with murder and rioting, blocked the rail track near Bayana township some 160km east of Jaipur. Columns of army soldiers tried dispersing them, leading to violence.
After India's independence from colonial rule 61 years ago it was made illegal to discriminate against someone based on the centuries-old Hindu caste system. However, its influence remains powerful and the government sets quotas for jobs and university places for different lower-caste groups.
This issue of affirmative action is highly sensitive in India, with many poor communities arguing that it is the only way millions of them could benefit from the country's economic boom.
But its opponents, belonging mostly to the upper castes, say it is a cynical move by politicians to nurture "vote banks" and to further create divisive social fissures.