Jaipur: On June 16, the Delhi-Mumbai railway tracks in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district became an unlikely protest site. A large number of men and women from the Meena community, dressed in colourful traditional attire, stood over the railway tracks and danced to the tune of folk songs being played out from DJs.As train services remained disrupted due to the protest, police personnel from the local Wazirpur police station tried to engage with the crowds, who came from the Mahswa village in neighbouring Karauli district.Finally, after an hour, they managed to clear the railway tracks, and an FIR was registered for the disruption. After being dispersed by the police, the protesters continued on their way to the nearby Khandip village in Sawai Madhopur, where a massive dharna by the Meena community has been going on since June 5.The dharna at Khandip by the Meena community, and a counter-movement at the Panchana dam in Karauli district by the Gurjar community have turned into an impasse with far-reaching political and social implications in eastern Rajasthan. In 2007-08, the belt had seen violent clashes between the two communities in the wake of the Gurjar agitation for reservation.Back then, the Meena community, which has been accorded Scheduled Tribe status in Rajasthan and the Gurjar community, which was demanding the same status, had come to loggerheads, leading to loss of several lives.A tug of war over irrigation water from the Panchana damAt the centre of the present dispute is the claim – arising from both the Meena and Gurjar communities – over the waters of the Panchana dam, built across the basin of the river Gambhir in Karauli district.Under the Panchana Dam Irrigation Project, water is available to be released to canals under the command area (water-using region) in the Karauli and Sawai Madhopur districts. This would provide water to 35 villages – predominantly populated by the Meena community – and irrigate 9,985 hectares of lands twice a year.But despite a Rajasthan high court direction, the state government has not been able to release water from the dam to the command area due to opposition from the Gurjar community.While the Meena community is camping in Khandip, demanding that water from Panchana dam be immediately released, the Gurjar community has made the dam itself the site to record its dissent, by not allowing the water to be released.A meeting of the Gurjar community in Devlen Mod, Karauli district. Photo by arrangementThe main demand of the Gurjar community is that the 39 predominantly Gurjar villages situated in the catchment area (rainwater collection area), that don’t fall under its command area, must have the first right over irrigation water from it. This demand, the community says, arises because the Panchana dam was built on land acquired from the residents of these 35 villages.“While the need for water is omnipresent, the people whose lands have gone need to be given water on priority along with 360 villages living on a stark, dry riverbed that also need water. Thereafter, we have no other objections. The peaceful lockdown of water from the Panchana dam will go on until villages in the catchment area of the dam don’t get the water,” Gurjar leader Vijay Bainsla told The Wire.On June 18, Bainsla, son of the late Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla who spearheaded the Gurjar reservation movement in Rajasthan, was part of a massive meeting of the Gurjar community in Karauli’s Devlen Mod. The gathering extended solidarity to villages in the catchment area that have stopped the water from being released to the command area.Bainsla, who is also a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, was joined in the meeting by Rajasthan minister of state for home Jawahar Singh Bedham – also from the Gurjar community – who took a memorandum from the community and assured that the government was steadfastly committed to providing water to everyone.Less than 40 kilometres from Devlen Mod, at the Meena community’s protest site in Khandip, Congress MLA from Gangapur city and Rajasthan deputy leader of opposition Ramkesh Meena is leading the agitation demanding the release of Panchana dam water to the command area. He didn’t mince words as he attacked Bedham for visiting the Gurjar meeting and not the Meena’s protest site.Protesters from the Meena community blocking the Delhi-Mumbai railway tracks in Sawai Madhopur district. Photo by arrangement“The home minister of Rajasthan came within one kilometre of our protest site but didn’t visit us. And yesterday, he went to Devlen to take their memorandum. What can we expect from such a government and home minister?” Meena told the gathering on Friday (June 19).Meena is also one of the petitioners in Rajasthan high court which resulted in a court direction to release the water.“We will not call off the dharna till the high court order is not implemented and the water is not released into existing canals. On June 28, we will march with one lakh people towards either Panchana dam or the railway tracks. The dam has not been operational since 2007 when it was closed after clashes between the Gurjar and Meena communities. They have captured the dam and are not letting us access irrigation water,” Meena told The Wire.Impasse continues despite multiple court ordersEarlier, on April 23, the Rajasthan high court directed the secretary of the Water Resources Department to issue necessary orders for immediately releasing water into the existing canals and to also take steps to construction of a link canal that would provide water to villages yet to get water through existing canals.It also directed officials to take immediate steps to repair the existing canals wherever required.“However, the repairing work will, in no manner, stop the releasing of the water,” a high court bench of acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Shubha Mehta said in its order.This was not the first time that the high court had given directions for releasing water from the Panchana dam to the command area.On March 5, the high court noted that the lift irrigation scheme and the canal had already been constructed since 2005 and a huge amount has been spent from the public exchequer.In its order on March 5, 2026, the high court had said:Irrigation facilities are required for one and all. This court would not allow government officials to take excuses on the basis of political will of the concerned region. Merely because some groups of persons are opposing a scheme would not be sufficient to withhold the scheme. Moreover, we find that The State officials would, therefore, be responsible to see that the concerned scheme i.e. the water supply system through Lift Irrigation Scheme is made operational.Even before that, in an order dated July 8, 2022, the court had said that residents cannot raise objections of the kind that unless the facility is extended to them, irrigation facilities in other areas should not be made operational.“The state authorities may invite the objectors to discuss regarding development of irrigation project to those areas which have not so far been included and to prepare an appropriate plan in future. However, that should not be made a basis to delay supply of water under the existing system which has already been developed but only because agitation and protest has not been made operational,” the high court bench of Justices Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Shubha Mehta had said in 2022.Also read: Clash Between Communities Leaves 47 Villages in Rajasthan Without Water for 15 YearsHowever, despite multiple court orders, the impasse has continued, water from the dam not being supplied in the command area.Changing political allegiancesThe tussle over the dam water is reshaping political equations in eastern Rajasthan, which has a large population of both the Meena and Gurjar communities, both instrumental in deciding the outcome of over 20 constituencies in the region.As the agitations over water increasingly become a struggle between the two communities, leaders are forming new political equations.On Friday, former minister Golma Devi visited the Meena community’s protest site in Khandip and addressed the demonstrators. She joined Rajasthan deputy leader of opposition Ramkesh Meena to declare that the movement would not end and water from Panchana dam would not be released to villages in the command area.Devi’s presence at the protest led by Ramkesh Meena is surprising to say the least, given that her husband, Kirodi Lal Meena, is the tallest tribal leader of the BJP and the agriculture and rural development minister of Rajasthan.If the wife of a senior BJP minister participating in a protest led by a Congress leader is enough to raise eyebrows, when the bitter political rivalry between Kirodi Lal Meena and Congress’s Ramkesh Meena is taken into consideration, it becomes even more surprising and indicative of new political alliances forming beyond party lines.Back in 2021, Ramkesh Meena and Kirodi Lal Meena had lambasted each other over an incident wherein a saffron flag was lowered from the Amagarh fort in Jaipur.While Ramkesh Meena had accused the BJP and Hindutva outfits of trying to appropriate deities and holy sites of the Meenas, asserting the community’s tribal identity as distinct from the Hindu fold, Kirodi Lal Meena had led the attack against Ramkesh Meena from the BJP, making the counter claim that the Meena community followed Hindu religion.Days before Devi’s visit to the protest site in Khandip, Cabinet minister Kirodi Lal Meena had also written to Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, urging him to talk with both the sides and to ensure compliance of the high court order by releasing water from the dam into the canal.In his letter dated June 16, Kirodi Lal Meena said he had been requested by protesters in Khandip to intervene in the matter. Three days later, his wife Golma Devi joined the protest.Another leader who has surprised people with his statements is Harish Chandra Meena, Congress Member of Parliament from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur.During his visit to Khandip, Harish Meena told the gathering, “Those who have votes are being afraid and those who don’t have votes [here] are scaring [them]. Those who have nothing to do… someone has come from UP, some from Haryana, some from even Kashmir!”The Haryana reference seemed to be aimed at BJP leader and former Tonk-Sawai Madhopur Member of Parliament Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria. With roots in Haryana, he has twice been elected from the constituency in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, before Harish Meena defeated him in the 2024 election.Meena’s reference to people coming from Kashmir may point to Qummer Rubbani Chechi, who contested the 2009 Dausa Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate and finished second, securing a large chunk of Gurjar votes.Back in 2009, the Dausa parliamentary constituency had been reserved for the Scheduled Tribe community, which meant both the Congress and BJP would field Meena candidates. However, the Gurjar community members didn’t want to vote for a Meena candidate. Animosity between the two communities was running high in the aftermath of the 2007-08 clashes between the two communities.Subsequently, Chechi, a Gurjar Muslim from Jammu and Kashmir, a Scheduled Tribe community in the erstwhile state, contested that election and polled more than both the BJP and Congress candidates. (Kirori Lal Meena won that election as an independent candidate.)However, the most surprising aspect of Harish Meena’s speech at the Khandip protest site was his reference to “people from UP”, with many in political circles interpreting it to be targeted at Congress leader and former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, whose father and former Union minister Rajesh Pilot’s family had roots in Uttar Pradesh.Harish Meena’s statements raised several eyebrows, as till now, he was counted among the staunchest supporters of Pilot. He was among the 18 Congress MLAs who sided with Pilot during the latter’s rebellion against then chief minister Ashok Gehlot.Meena-Gurjar electoral alliance and how it helped stop the BJP in 2024Considered a Pilot stronghold, the grand old party has performed well in eastern Rajasthan in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, winning the Dausa, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Karauli-Dholpur and Bharatpur seats.One factor behind the win was the alliance between Gurjar-Meena communities stitched by Pilot. While Pilot himself is from the Gurjar community, and despite the history of rivalry between Gurjars and Meenas, Pilot has always advocated for a harmonious relationship between the two communities and has several Meena leaders as his loyalists.As a result, the Gurjar-Meena electoral alliance was instrumental in stopping the BJP and NDA which had bagged all Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan in the 2014 and 2019 elections.On the Panchana dam issue, Pilot has refrained from taking sides and instead demanded that the state government takes the initiative to hold talks with the protesters, hears grievances on both sides, and finds a solution that respects the court’s order. Pilot has said that under no circumstance should the brotherhood between communities be allowed to deteriorate.At such a juncture, the continued tussle between the Gurjar and Meena communities could significantly impact the electoral arithmetic in the region.The state government is presently holding talks with both the factions to find a solution to the issue.“The clashes between the Gurjar and Meena communities in 2007-08 had resulted in widespread violence and loss of lives. Leaders from both communities should ensure that there are no provocative speeches or inciting of violence. The state government must find a solution to supply water to both the villages in the catchment area and the command area by implementing the long-pending Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP),” said Himmat Singh Gurjar, one of the leaders of the Gurjar reservation movement and a Congress member.