Alliance with Maya? Fresh Jat agitation expands community's power to tilt balance in State polls

Jat politics is likely to get unified, being scheduled to spread across other States.
Rohtak Jat community members during their agitation for reservation in Rohtak on Tuesday. | PTI
Rohtak Jat community members during their agitation for reservation in Rohtak on Tuesday. | PTI

CHANDIGARH: Image compulsions, powerful khap reluctance and internal divisions will affect the outcome of the fresh phase of peaceful Jat agitation. Jat politics is likely to get unified, being scheduled to spread across other States.

The agitation is also changing caste equations, with BSP boss Mayawati supporting the hunger strike in Rohtak, thus creating a new Dalit-Jat alliance. This will help her chances in the UP polls, since the Jat leaders have offered to  help her.

A contradictory complication has risen with dharnas in around 12 villages in Bhiwani getting support from local Brahmins, Jangras and Sens. The powerful president of the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS), Yashpal Malik, told Express, “The agitation is peaceful and will continue non-stop till our demands are met. It will spread to all Jat-dominated States. From Western UP, it will expand to all Assembly segments from June 10. It will start in Uttarakhand on June 11 and in Punjab and Rajasthan from June 12. Our plan is for the dharnas to continue till June 30. After that, will we decide our further course of action.”    He claims support of around 30 khaps. However, the Sarva Jatiya Sarv Khap Mahapanchayat, the umbrella body of khaps, is not in favour of the ongoing protests. Tulsi Grewal, chief of powerful Meham khap, said that  it was decided at the June 5 Mahapanchayat conclave that all khaps would wait for the outcome of the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s decision on June 13.

The next decision will happen at the next Mahapanchayat to be held this week. “Yashpal Malik is agitating for political gain,” said Grewal. A section of protestors allege that supporters of the BJP’s non-Jat Kurukshetra MP, Rajkumar Saini, could inflame Jats by desecrating statues of prominent personalities. He was accused of inflaming sentiment during the last agitation. 

Apart from the deployment of 55 companies of paramilitary forces across sensitive districts including Rohtak, Bhiwani, Sonepat, Panipat, Jind, Hisar and Jhajjar, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Muhammad Akil said that the efforts were being made to dissuade people from participating in the dharnas and withdraw the agitation.

The agitation will spread to all Jat-dominated States. From Western UP, it will expand to all Assembly segments from June 10. It will start in Uttarakhand on June 11 and in Punjab and Rajasthan from June 12 Yashpal Malik, All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti president

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