Why Do Jats Need Reservation?.

Why on earth do Jats need the benefits of Reservation?.

- PR Ramesh

Nine of Haryana’s 12 chief ministers since the state’s formation five decades ago came from the politically powerful and relatively well-off Jat community, and the fresh demand for Other Backward Class (OBC) status for the caste group—a call that lacks justification— has led to the wanton destruction of public and private property as Jat mobs went on a rampage, looting and torching shops owned by other communities and wreaking havoc that has crippled water supply to several parts of Delhi.

Ironically, a third of the land in the state—where normal life has come to a partial halt thanks to the ongoing agitation—is owned by Jats, who account for about 22 per cent of its population. Not only are they highly vocal, their social dominance is evident in almost every sphere. In the state Assembly, close to a third of the people’s representatives are Jats. While most are farmers, their land holdings being bought over for urbanisation has assured large numbers of them a spurt of prosperity over the past two decades. The large SUVs that many are seen travelling in, say social observers, are merely the latest means adopted to assert a sense of superiority. As land prices skyrocketed in areas around Delhi where new townships came up, their fortunes increased, resulting in a phenomenon that entered the corporate lexicon as ‘boomtown Sonepat’.

It was here in Sonepat, one of those small towns where farmers are seen using high-end SUVs to carry farming equipment, that a few protestors have died in clashes with security forces. Call it a paradox: Sonepat is also one of the nerve centres of the agitation that saw mindless acts of vandalism.