Knowing well that a decision on scheduled tribe (ST) status to Gujjars in Rajasthan will boomerang either way, both the Centre and the state government have been passing the buck on each other.
The Centre on Wednesday said if any state government wants to grant tribal status to any community it has to give its recommendation first with proper justification, whereas BJP defended Vasundhara Raje government?s decision to forward the Chopra Committee report to the Union government.
Even though the Centre has not yet received the report sent by the Rajasthan government, tribal affairs minister P R Kyndiah said, ??If any state government wants to grant tribal status to any community, while sending a report to the Central government, it has to give its recommendation first with proper justification. Otherwise, it has no meaning.??
Meanwhile, in a bid to put the ball in the Centre?s court, the BJP said the ?obsolete? and ?outdated? criteria of determining ST status was coming in the way of including new castes in the list and asked the Centre to make the necessary changes before a suggestion could come from the state government.
However, it was not forthcoming on the specific case of Gujjars and party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar repeatedly insisted that the BJP was in favour of giving justice to all downtrodden sections of the society.
??The criteria for determining ST status, outlined by the Lokur Committee, have become outdated and obsolete. The government has also admitted this fact in the draft Tribal Policy, 2006,?? he said.
The tribal affairs minister said the Chopra Committee, which looked into the Gujjars demand, has taken a similar view and the Vasundhara Raje government has recommended reviewing of the criteria.
??It is upto the Centre to review the criteria…. Let the Centre clear its stand on the issue first,?? he said in reply to a barrage of questions on whether the BJP was in favour of giving ST status to Gujjars.