GURGAON: The Rajasthan Gujjar backlash crossed borders to hit the National Capital Region (NCR) on Thursday. Members of the community took to protesting at the Delhi-Gurgaon border, choking the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, the lifeline of the ever-growing mass of commuters from Delhi to this satellite IT town in Haryana.
Those who started out very early in the morning from Delhi staggered into offices a little before noon with accounts of 10-km-long vehicular jams, fires that could be spotted from miles away, unruly mobs and a sea of cops.
The trouble was centred around the slim neckline that the Delhi-Gurgaon border opens onto the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, which was sealed by Haryana Police, forcing vehicles to turn back on the Delhi side. A difficult task as the road, already dug up for work on the Metro line, had cars lined up bumper to bumper.
Those who could navigate out of the jam made a beeline for a less-used hilly road that connects to Gurgaon, only to find that other hapless commuters had already had the same idea. The average travel time on that road on Thursday morning %u2013 two hours.
At the border, the mobs shouted slogans and burnt tyres and other material. Policemen stood on the ready for violence with the protesters clearly in a bad mood. Haryana Police said the Gujjar protesters had blocked traffic at the Mathepur traffic light and Dwarpuri Naka. By 11.15 a.m., police claimed the two places had been cleared of protesters.
