Don't play political game on Gujjar issue : Conress

New Delhi, May 30 (UNI) Accusing the BJP government in Rajasthan of ''footballing" the Gujjar issue, the Congress Party today asked Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to stop playing "political game" on the issue.

AICC Spokesman Abishek Manu Singhvi told mediapersons that the state government had not initiated any step towards fulfilling the BJP's pre-election promise given to the Gujjars to get them included in the list of Scheduled Castes.

"The process of declaring any community as SC is a state-specific exercise which the Raje government had not initiated in the past five years," he said.

He said the state government had to make a specific recommendation to the Registrar General of India, backed by anthropological data.

On the basis of the recommendations of the Registrar General that the Union government had to take a decision either in favour or against including a community in the SC list.

In this context, Dr Singhvi said the Rajasthan Government had not done any of these procedures. Instead, the government appointed the Justice Chopra Committee and forwarded its report to the Centre.

He said the Chopra committee had not done its job. In fact, it had gone into the parameters and criteria set by the Centre. ''It has a particular mandate. But unfortunately they have done everything other than fulfilling the mandate,'' he added.

While the Rajasthan government appointed the Chopra committee, its intend was to fool all the people. "It has, however, exposed the double-facedness and the hypocrisy of the BJP," he said.

Asked what was the official view of the Congress on the Gujjar issue, Dr Singhvi evaded a reply saying "it is not the question of Congress view or BJP view on a technical matter." "Unlike the BJP, we don't believe in making false promises. We promise only which is constitutional, legal and what we can fulfil," he said.

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