Apart from those sitting next to the bodies, there were a large number of people who were hovering around the area. It is clear that there is no leader in Sikandra and it is a mob that is left to its devices. The young roam about the area armed with sticks and axes. The old sit around with nothing to do but eat and sleep.
The nerve centre of the agitation lies another 100 km further down the highway at Bayana.
A single track road branches from the highway as it enters Bharatpur district and leads to Pilupura, 35 km off the highway. If Sikandra is a spot where Gujjar dominated villages lie on either side of the highway, Pipupura is huge swathes of barren land dissected by a railway line.
The blockade at Sikandra is aimed to cripple the truck and other road services on the Jaipur-Agra highway; at Pilupura, the objective is to disrupt services on the crucial Delhi-Mumbai rail line. Also, the terrain, which they know like the back of their hands, is their biggest advantage.
Here too they are holding on to their dead -- 12 of them. But the number of people is much larger than it was at Sikandra. Their leader Kirrori Singh Bayana sits on a makeshift tent erected on the railway tracks. There is total chaos all around. By the end of the fourth day, frayed nerves were showing, with people fighting among themselves for food packets and over petty issues.
A voice over a loud speaker -- also erected on the tracks -- tries to keep the crowd under control, but with little effect. When a helicopter appeared on the skyline and made a couple of circles over the spot, the announcement went: "Bhaiyon, spread out quickly so that whoever is watching us from there sees a bigger crowd."
They have not even spared their women. A group of women dressed in traditional Rajasthani attire was sitting in a small hillock, brandishing sickles and sticks.
Despite the disorder and falling morale, one thing is clear. This group knows no fear. Not even the Army. "They are ours. Do you think they will harm us?" one of them said. This might sound like a vain boast, but the elders-and there are lots of them-have drilled into the youngsters that the army will not advance against them. There is also the feeling that since the Gujjar community has a high presence in the Army, "our own people can never hit us" is the feeling that runs high.
Image: Right:Idle Gujjars tinker with the engine of a truck they burnt down in Bayana.
Left: Though the Gujjars claim the agitation is peaceful and they do not have arms, this youngster in Bayana was sporting a bullet belt around his waist.
Also read: Jaipur blasts: Imam detained
Advertisement
