On Wednesday, July 6, the members of the BJP Kisan Morcha in Deeg Tehsil in the Bharatpur district of Rajasthan dug pits and sat inside them as a mark of protest against the Ashok Gehlot government for delimiting nine Gram Panchayats of Deeg Panchayat Samiti and merging them with the Sikri and Nagar Panchayat Samiti. The villagers alleged that the grand old party’s compulsive practice of appeasing minorities has prompted the Ashok Gehlot government to take this arbitrary decision as the delimitation would ultimately favour the Muslim community.
According to reports, the villagers led by BJP Kisan Morcha state spokesperson Nem Singh Faujdar have been peacefully protesting near the Bharatpur-Alwar highway in Deeg tehsil for the last 16 days against the Rajasthan government’s delimitation notifications. On Wednesday, however, the villagers dug 51 pits and since then have been taking turns to sit in them to protest day and night. They said that they would continue to do so until the government does not take back its decision to merge nine Gram Panchayats of Deeg Panchayat Samiti with Sikri and Nagar Panchayat Samiti.
Speaking about the state government’s decision, Nam Singh, the state spokesperson for the BJP Kisan Morcha, said that the Ashok Gehlot Government’s ultimate goal is to aid the members of a particular community. He said that if the nine Gram Panchayats of Deeg Panchayat Samiti are merged with Sikri and Nagar Panchayat Samiti, basic facilities like the police station and government offices will be out of reach for these villagers because Sikri will be too far away for them.
Nem Singh Faujdar further said that there would be a strong agitation if the administration did not take their warnings seriously. He said that three Gram Panchayats had already been merged but the notification to add the remaining six Gram Panchayats was arbitrary and illegal. He said that this delimitation is being done in violation of the law in order to benefit a specific community. “We will do whatever it takes to stop this delimitation process. We will stop the rail and block the road, even if we have to commit self-immolation, we will, but will not allow the government to act arbitrarily,” said Nem Singh Faujdar.
