The self-immolation and death of a septuagenarian monk, Baba Vijay Das, who was protesting against mining in Bharatpur has intensified politics in Rajasthan, the State set to witness polls by the end of the next year.
While both the Congress and the BJP, in their respective tenures, allowed the mining industry to flourish in culturally demarcated Braj region, the incident has given an opportunity to the Opposition BJP to attack the ruling Congress government for ‘neglecting a long-pending public demand’. The seers, struggling to get the region mining-free since decades, are happy after the government placed an ‘immediate ban’ on quarrying in the mountains which has religious significance, but those involved and employed in the trade are miffed with ‘appeasement politics’.
BJP’s Rajasthan president Satish Punia attacked the Congress government over the monk’s death and accused the Ministers and MLAs of having their own mines and hence ‘personally favouring’ the mining mafia lobby.
