Rape, Rushdie row and Gujjar quota hog limelight

At a time when the demand for protection of women and the protest against rape is growing following the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student in Delhi, statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau has ranked Jaipur among the top five cities with maximum rape incidents in the country.

It has been ranked behind Delhi, Mumbai, Bhopal and Bangalore, while there has been an alarming decline in the rate of convictions for rape incidents.  According to the records, the number of rape cases jumped from 71 in 2010 to 121 in 2012, a jump of 32 per cent.

The records also revealed that Rajasthan jumped from the sixth position in 2009 to fourth this year.

While the number of cases around the state stood at 1519 in 2009, it increased to 1800 in 2011.  Consequently, the rate of conviction that stood at 14.54 per cent in 2009, declined to 11.38 per cent in 2011.

Rushdie controversy

For Rajasthan, 2012 began with the unnecessary controversy over the visit of Salman Rushdie to the Jaipur Literature Festival, which has been steadily gaining popularity in recent times.

Though the Indian born British writer has been to the festival before, some Muslim groups like the Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, with an eye on the forthcoming election in the state, expressed opposition to his visit this time, prompting some fringe groups in the state to voice protest.  

The state government, in its effort to project itself as champions of minority causes, not only scuttled Rushdie’s visit, but also prevented him from joining on a video line, showing this largely tourism-dependent state in a poor light.

Sariska’s first tiger cubs

The year had something for the wildlife conservationists and nature lovers to cheer about as Sariska National Park had its first tiger cubs after a gap of four years. Tigress ST-2 gave birth to two cubs at the Kalighat-Slopka area of the park.

The Tigress along with its cubs was caught in the camera trap ending all speculation about the success of the first ever experiment to repopulate the park with relocated tigers.

The Sariska Foundation, which has been spearheading a campaign for reintroducing tigers in the park and rehabilitation of the villagers, called for translocation of more tigers.

Floods

Just when the state was preparing for a drought year, monsoon showers lashed large parts easing fears of water crises.

However, the rain turned out to be a catastrophe with the death of several people.
Failure of the civic bodies to prepare for the rains had been largely blamed for waterlog, house collapses and drownings due to the rains.  In Jaipur, at least a dozen lives had been lost due to drowning and electrocution, which could have been avoided, had the city authorities cleared the drains and removed encroachments on the water outlets.  According to the government, the floods affected nearly 4000 families. In Jaipur alone, 1,900 families had been left homeless.

Reservation

In state politics, reservation remained a hot issue throughout the year. While the Gujjars threatened agitation for a separate 5% reservation under special socially backward class, government employees had voiced their opposition to the proposal for reservation for SC/ST in promotion.

Despite the cabinet clearing a 5% special quota for SBC, it is still unclear whether it would stand the law as it had crossed the 50% cap on quotas. Evidently, all the eyes are on Supreme Court.

Rathore ruckus

The BJP, particularly the Raje camp, faced a major setback after the CBI arrested Rajendra Rathore in April 2012 in the Dara Singh fake encounter case. The party rallied behind its chief whip in the Rajasthan Assembly initially and he has been released from jail and absolved him of charges by the lower court.

However, in October, Rajasthan high court ordered him to surrender before a trial court forthwith where charges would be framed against him. He was given an interim relief from the SC but the threat of another arrests looms over him.