RSS campaign to unify Gujjars in UP will fan over to Amethi and Raebareli; opposition parties alarmed

Ravi S Singh

New Delhi, April 14

The RSS’ campaign in Uttar Pradesh to bring heterogeneous groups of Gujjars on one platform will reach districts of Amethi and Raebareli, which were once in the traditional hold of the first family of the Congress: the Gandhis.

This has sent alarm bells among opposition parties, especially in the Congress camp.

A gathering of the community of the two districts will be held under the aegis of the All India Gujjar Mahasabha.

“Yes, the community of the two is eager on coming together of various groups with a sense of awakening,” BJP Rajya Sabha MP and patron of the Mahasabha Surendra Singh Nagar said on Thursday, while confirming the plans of proposed meetings.

Nagar rationalised the move to galvanise Gujjars, saying the community is highly nationalistic and has a strong sense of their indigenous roots.

The community’s contribution to the country’s defence and economy, especially of Rural-India, is immense.  

The RSS’ country-wide campaign, which is being shouldered by the BJP leaders, is avowedly aimed at unifying the groups within the community which would help them build a sense of collective identity and thus, empower them politically, socially and educationally.

With regard to Uttar Pradesh, the Gujjars are spread over various parts of the state, but have dense demography in clusters in several areas making them electorally a potent determinant as a unified group.

Besides, the Gujjars have sizeable presence in several other states, including Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.

The fanning of the RSS campaign to politically sensitive and high-profile areas like Amethi and Raebareli has apparently sent ripples among non-BJP parties including the Congress.

The cause of worry for the non-BJP parties is that the community has large number of Gujjars, who got converted to Islam during the reign of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.

Even after several generations of religious proselytisation, they still remain, by and large, a culturally and socially endogamous group in nature.

While the BJP camp is apparently happy and sure-footed, the opposition parties feel that besides expanding base among Gujjars, the BJP is also planning to produce leaders from the community with a pan-India profile.

The Congress has a stock of pan-India Gujjar leaders with pan-India persona, especially Sachin Pilot of Rajasthan.

On the contrary, the BJP lacks behind in the matter, even though the Gujjars showed affinity for it in the last Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.