BJP wants to divide and rule
Shehzad Poonawalla
For over 10 days Haryana burnt, scores of lives were lost and the exchequer suffered in excess of Rs 20,000 crore. No matter how strongly we condemn vandalism, blaming only the protests by Jats (which did turn violent due to some anti-social elements egged on by the state’s complicit inaction) would be a dishonest assessment of the situation that would end up absolving the “original sins” of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Haryana and at the Centre. Of course, violence cannot be justified, but then the BJP itself has been the biggest votary of the much loathed “action-reaction” brand of politics, be it in Gujarat 2002 or Ayodhya.
The problem is a simple one to diagnose and treat, provided there is political willingness to follow the Ambedkarian social justice narrative of the Constitution and not the Manuvadi programme of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. But as a pracharak of the Sangh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have his loyalties mixed up.
Having used Jats for electoral gains, be it Haryana or in western Uttar Pradesh, they felt cheated when the BJP government gave conflicting signals on a long-standing demand of reservation for Jats within the Other Backward Class quota, after having paid lip service to it. If, as claimed in its election manifesto for Haryana, the BJP was indeed committed to this then why not restore the Supreme Court decision (which struck down the unique formula which the previous government devised to meet expectations of Jats and other communities) by means of an ordinance that would take less than five minutes to be issued just like the one Mr Modi promulgated to snatch away parcels of lands held by farmers, both Jats and non-Jats? Why wait till the next Assembly session? Why not follow in the steps of the Hooda government which gave reservations to Jats, Jat Sikhs and also economically backward sections from forward castes without disturbing existing shares of OBCs and dalits?
For over a year, since the decision of the apex court in March 2015 (which many attribute to a fixed match by the anti-reservationist lobby of legal officers of the BJP government), Mr Modi and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar failed to move an inch on the promises made to Jat leaders, including Mahendra Singh Tikait. They peddled false hopes just like they dangled empty promises in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections of depositing into our accounts that now elusive Rs 15 lakh of black money that they were going to bring back from Swiss banks.
It doesn’t help at all that while the state is burning, Mr Khattar and Anil Vij, Cabinet minister in the Haryana government, are allowing their petty politics to play out instead of ensuring that violence by anti-social elements is halted, or statements that incite hate against Jats by the BJP MP from Kurukshetra is acted upon. Clearly, it seems the stakes of the BJP in allowing this to escalate further is far greater, perhaps with a cynical aim to now pit Jats against OBCs and non-Jat groups. This is similar to the “divide and rule” policy the BJP has used every now and then in Gujarat, western Uttar Pradesh, etc.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat says that apolitical committee should decide on reservation eligibility. In the light of this comment, there is no doubt that the BJP is both anti-backward and anti-reservation. Dalits and OBCs must beware; they are next after Jats.
Shehzad Poonawalla, a lawyer-activist, is founder member of Policy Samvad
Jat stir is Congress’ doing
Shrikant Sharma
It is the guiding principle for all development policies and programmes of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre to embrace the aspirations of all states: to amalgamate these aspirations and demands into policy formulations rather than working on the old paradigm of trickle-down effect. The Congress advocates and actively pursues the politics of division, on the basis of caste, religion and region. The recent agitation for reservation by Jats is the consequence of vote-bank politics and misrule of the Congress since Independence.
Between 2004 and 2014, the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government forced the Jats and other communities to sell their high-yielding cultivable lands to close relatives and acquaintances of the Gandhi-Nehru family at very low cost. Therefore, a large number of people in the state became landless and jobless.
While virtually looting Haryana, the Congress tried to appease the Jat community for votes leaving nothing for their future. The Congress even ignored the constitutional provisions. The United Progressive Alliance government — eyeing the votes ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections — hurriedly decided to include the Jat community in the other backward class list in nine states.
It may be noted that National Commission of Backward Classes (NCBC) had clearly submitted its advice, dated February 26, 2014, to the UPA government stating that the Jat community did not fulfilled the criteria for inclusion in the Central list of OBCs. Yet, the UPA, on March 2, 2014, set aside the advice of NCBC and included the Jat community in the Central list of backward classes for the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, National Capital Territory of Delhi, and Bharatpur and Dholpur districts of Rajasthan. When this decision was challenged in the Supreme Court on March 17, 2015, it quashed the UPA government’s decision of inclusion of Jats in the OBC list. Had the Congress done its homework and not taken this decision in haste, things could have been different.
Now, the Haryana Police has booked Mr Hooda’s close aide Virender Singh for sedition after an audio clip of his conversation in which he allegedly incited violence during the Jat quota agitation surfaced.
This is proof that the Congress is trying to divide the people of Haryana. It is unfortunate that some people lose their lives due to the Congress’ tactics to divide.
The Haryana government has announced full compensation for damage caused to private properties as well as ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the 19 killed in the Jat agitation for reservation. It has decided to give full compensation for the loss of properties, both commercial and residential, in the Jat stir. The state government has also ordered an inquiry into the matter of inciting violence.
We all know that reservation is a form of quota-based affirmative action, governed by constitutional laws, statutory laws, and local rules and regulations to uplift certain backward sections of society which missed the race to match pace with others.
This can’t be achieved through divisive political tricks or by destabilising the peace at the behest of some malicious incitement. If this is the case, it is a very sorry affair. Let it be the prerogative of the government and not those who have been misled by the Congress to take the law in their hands.
Shrikant Sharma is national secretary, BJP
