Stalemate in talks to end tribe protests in India

New Delhi - Talks between India's north-western Rajasthan state and the minority Gujjar community to end two weeks of Gujjar protests have hit an impasse after starting on a positive note, news reports said Tuesday. The Gujjars, who raise livestock and sell dairy products, have been holding protests since May 23 to exert pressure on the state government to accept their demand to be classified as a scheduled tribe to qualify for government jobs and quotas in schools. More than 40 Gujjars were killed in clashes between demonstrators and police in Rajasthan. The Gujjars want to be downgraded in official social status in order to benefit from India's affirmative action policy. Talks that opened between a 37-member Gujjar delegation and Rajasthan ministers in the eastern Bayana town on Monday evening had ended on a conciliatory note, the Hindustan Times daily reported. As a result of headway made in the preliminary discussions, the Gujjar leadership called off a nationwide strike planned for Tuesday and said they would hold further talks with the government. But Gujjar leader KS Bainsla on Tuesday made fresh demands as a pre-condition for further talks, nullifying efforts by officials to end the Gujjar agitation. Quoting senior officials, the PTI reported that Bainsla had demanded the withdrawal of murder charges against 20 protestors and release of arrested female activists as pre-conditions for talks. A written commitment by Bainsla about holding the next round of talks was also retracted, the report said. During the talks on Monday, the Rajasthan government agreed to stop police raids in Gujjar-dominated villages and restore water and electricity supplies in the areas which were turned off to break the protests. As for their main demand that the state government recommend their case for job quotas to the federal government, the Gujjar leaders said they had reminded the government ministers to accept their plea. In the violent protests spread over the desert state, Gujjar demonstrators disrupted train services, destroyed public property and attacked police stations leading to the clashes. The latest violence came one year after protests by Gujjars in Rajasthan claimed 26 lives.