BackJat group calls for protests in Haryana, 7 other states
Jats toresume agitation on 5 June, spreading to Delhi, UP, Punjab and Uttarakhand in the days after, following Chandigarh HC stay on reservations bill
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New Delhi: The Haryana government’s worst fears have come true. Miffed by the decision of the Punjab and Haryana high court to stay the government order on reservations, the Jat community is all set to resume its agitation.
It will kick off from Haryana on 5 June, and then be taken up in seven more states.
The Jat community is the single largest social composition in Haryana and consequently wields significant political influence. The second round of protests by Jats will be a test for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not only in Haryana, where the party has its first chief minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, but also in Delhi where agitators are planning to protest on 6 June and in western Uttar Pradesh on 8 June. Similarly, the plan of the Jat Sangharsh Samiti (JSS) is to hold similar protests in Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
“We have decided to launch statewide protests on 5 June in Haryana. It will be a peaceful protest, we don’t want violence. This is the first time that violence took place, we have been demanding reservations for the past 10 years but there was never violence," said Yashpal Malik, chief of the JSS.
The problem for BJP is that the agitation is not being confined to Haryana, but will also extend to Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, all of which go to elections next year.
The Jat community is also politically relevant in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, all ruled by the BJP.
“The Jat community had played a very important role in the BJP’s victory in the 2014 general elections. The party did well in western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana. If the state government and the Union government doesn’t agree to our demands, then the BJP leadership will face the political fallout," Malik added.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on 26 May stayed reservation for the Jat community. The politically sensitive bill was cleared by governor Kaptan Singh Solanki on 1 April and notified on 12 May. The two bills—Haryana Backward Classes (Reservation in Services and Admission in Educational Institutions) Bill, 2016, and Haryana Backward Classes Commission Bill, 2016—were introduced by Khattar in the assembly on 29 March and passed the same day.
The bills propose quotas for Jats and five other castes—Jat Sikh, Ror, Bishnoi, Tyagi and Mulla Jat/Muslim Jat—by constituting a new classification Block ‘C’ in the Backward Classes category. The changes were proposed after a violent Jat agitation that crippled the state and ended in the death of 30 people, injuries to 320 others and widespread damage to property. It was brought under control only after the army staged a flag march.
“The government is confident it will be able to maintain law and order in the state and there would be no untoward incident this time during the protest. The state government will hold talks with the protesters to reach an amicable solution," said a senior BJP leader involved in the discussion to deal with Jat leaders. The state government also held a series of meetings on Monday with senior leaders in Haryana to find out ways to deal with the upcoming protest.
“Why are people being kept in the dark? The promises that were made to the group that visited Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March should be made public and should be known where the shortage in implementation is," said Rann Singh Mann, a spokesperson for the Congress party’s Haryana unit.
The state government has deployed paramilitary forces in seven districts: Jind, Kaithal, Bhiwani, Hisar, Sonepat, Jhajjar and Rohtak. While central forces were deployed in many sensitive districts across the state, security has been strengthened at Munak canal, said people familiar with the matter. Protesters had disrupted water supply to the national capital by damaging the Carrier-Lined Channel of the Munak Canal during February’s agitation.
An analyst said the protest this time may not have the same impact. “The protest this time has various factors involved. The demography is very different in each of these states. In some states like Rajasthan, because Jats are in minority, they have already been given reservation. There is no uniform pattern because the Jat population percentage varies," said R.S. Yadav, dean of the department of political science at Kurukshetra University.
“This time, public agitation may be difficult as well because the government has also taken precautionary steps. They are administratively strong," he added.
PTI contributed to this story.
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