In Fight over Rajmahal Palace, Former Jaipur Royals to Protest on streets

Mangalore Today News Network

Jaipur, Sep 01, 2016:  The former royals of Jaipur will be seen today on the streets of the city in full strength, in an escalating battle over the Rajmahal Palace hotel, which has in the past hosted Queen Elizabeth, Lord Mountbatten and the Shah of Iran.

Queen Mother Padmini Devi, 73, and others of her family are expected to start their protest from the historic Tripolia Gate of the City Palace. A large group of Rajput community leaders are expected to join them and march till the Rajmahal Palace, 6 km away.

Last week, the Rajasthan government sealed the gates of the Rajmahal Palace while taking over parts of the sprawling property, ignoring the protests of the former royal family, which asserted its right of way.

"How much do you want to take away from us? They did not think about our honour...We are very sad, we feel humiliated," said Padmini Devi, the seniormost of the Jaipur royals, speaking passionately at a meeting of Rajput leaders this week.

The Rajmata reached out to people through a newspaper appeal on Wednesday, urging them to join them on the streets against the government’s action.

The state government claims it is only claiming the parts of the property that it acquired in 1993. It insists that the main gate is part of it.

As officials came with bulldozers and a police force to seal the palace gate last Thursday, the former royals, including Diya Kumari, a lawmaker of the state’s ruling BJP, pleaded with the civic authorities and showed a map.

"When the acquisition was ordered in 1993, a map was made and decreed by the court. It has the signatures of the Jaipur development authorities, but today they are refusing to accept their own map," the Queen Mother said at a meeting.

The family claims that the Rajmahal palace, which was once a British residency, is one of the properties given to them under the covenant signed with princely states in 1949. The home of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II at one time, the palace was converted into a hotel decades back; last year, the family collaborated with a private company to turn it into a boutique hotel.

"It is a regular acquisition proceeding, there is nothing unusual about it," said the state’s Urban Development Minister Rajpal Shekhawat on the row.