Jaipur: Amid the brouhaha over the Deepika Padukone-starrer Padmaavat and allegations of Rajput politicians trying to use the protests against the film to revive their careers, old-timers in Rajasthan can't help but remember two of its great Rajput sons who fought obscurantism in the community.
Former vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat or Babosa, as he was fondly called, and former Maharaja of Jaipur Brigadier Bhawani Singh took on the menacing crowds and risked their political and social status to resist unreasonable diktats of caste satraps.
In the case of the late vice-president, there are two incidents that stood out in his career and separated him from the rest of his ilk.
Before, his more famous stance in Diwarala Sati case in the 1980s, by when he had become an established leader, people should know about an incident related to his early political days.
Bhawani Singh
Shekhawat was a 29-year-old when he was elected on a Jan Sangh ticket for the first time in 1952. The Congress government introduced Jagirdari Abolition and Resumption Bill which Shekhawat supported much to the dismay and anger of his community and six fellow party legislators who were feudal lords. Consider this, he came from a modest background; had resigned from police force before contesting election yet took this exceptional decision. He was expelled but later the party realised its mistake and re-inducted him while dismissed the six MLAs who had voted against the bill.
More than three decades later, Shekhawat again faced a tumultuous situation in the wake of the Roop Kanwar sati incident in 1987. He was in the US when immolation of the 18-year-old Roop Kanwar took place. When he returned, a large crowd of sati supporters besieged him at the airport. He was taken to Diwarala where Rajput men holding swords were protecting the sati's pyre.
Shekhawat was surrounded by thousands of people yet the Rajput leader openly condemned the incident. He told the agitating crowd, "My father died young. If my mother had thought of committing sati, imagine what would have happened to me and my seven brothers and sisters? I cannot support the practice of sati."
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
Maharaja Bhawani Singh also set an example in fighting fringe elements in 1997. His daughter Diya Kumar, who is now a BJP MLA and among the former royals supporting a ban on Padmaavat, had chosen to marry a commoner from her own gotra.
The Rajput Mahasabha, led by a similar group of moral policemen who are now demanding a ban on Padmaavat, held protests outside his residence City Palace and threatened to excommunicate the Maharaja and divest him of all positions on community trusts, including his title.
The venue of the princess' wedding was shifted to Delhi but Bhawani Singh stood his ground on her choice of a life partner.
He snubbed the fringe elements, asking them to mind their own business rather than meddling with his family matters. He also had an advice for them: "Concentrate on poverty and lack of education in the community than rallying like obscurantist."
Unfortunately, amid the current turmoil over Padmaavat there is no one like Shekhawat who can stand up to fringe elements like Karni Senas and their leaders including Lokendra Singh Kalvi, Mahipal Singh Makrana, Ajit Singh Mamdoli or Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi and their various Karni Senas which on pretext of protecting the honour of Rani Padmini are resorting to vandalism.
Worried about retaining the core votebank of the BJP in a crucial election year, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje immediately banned the film.
Her political rivals in the Congress were too happy to sit in the company of Mr Makrana, who had threatened to chop off Deepika Padukone's nose, and Mr Gogamedi, an alleged rape accused supporting a ban on the film, because these leaders have declared support for the party in Monday's by-elections for two Lok Sabha and one Assembly seat which are being seen as a semi-final to 2019.
Failed politician
How many people in the country have heard of Lokendra Singh Kalvi — the Shree Rajput Karni Sena leader who is spearheading anti-Padmaavat campaign? What about his father Kalyan Singh Kalvi who was Union minister in the Chandrashekhar government?
As they say "like father like son", right now, Lokendra Singh Kalvi is following in the footsteps of his father who was also at the forefront of a campaign to glorify sati three decades ago, say political observers.
Lokendra Singh Kalvi
Just as his father Kalyan Singh used a young woman's immolation to revive his political fortunes, Lokendra Kalvi has taken to protesting against Padmaavat as a desperate measure to revive his political career.
Unlike Kalvi senior who at least won a few elections, Lokendra Singh's political career is all about changing parties and losing elections - first for the state Assembly as an independent and second as a BJP candidate for the Lok Sabha. He even went to the Congress and came back to the BJP but failed to succeed.
