A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the 64-foot-tall statue of venerated Jat farmer leader Deenbandhu Sir Chhotu Ram at his native village Sampla in Haryana's Rohtak, the Jat leaders on Wednesday lashed out at the BJP led Central and Haryana Governments accusing it of betraying the Jats and failing to fulfill its promises.
Aiming to mend fences with the influential Jat community in Haryana ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Prime Minister had on Tuesday evening unveiled the statue of Chhotu Ram in Jat heartland of Rohtak and addressed ‘Deenbandhu Samriti Rally’ where he had lauded the contribution of the peasant leader for empowering poor and farmers in pre-Independence era.
Aware of the resentment among the Jat community over their unfulfilled demands, PM Modi had gone all out showering praises on Chhotu Ram, the tallest Jat-farmer leader of the pre-Independence era.
However, the much-hyped event has failed to appease the Jat leaders, who have been spearheading the Jat agitation in Haryana over various demands.
All India Jat Aarkashan Sanghrash Samiti (AIJASS) president Yashpal Malik, while talking to The Pioneer on Wednesday said, “The Jat community is disappointed as the Prime Minister did not mention anything about 2016 Jat agitation and our demand of reservation.”
Yashpal Malik, who had spearheaded the protest in support of the Jat reservation demand in January 2016 and continuing the agitation till now, was also invited for Tuesday’s event but had skipped it.
“The BJP led Haryana Government had incited the violence in 2016 Jat agitation and the Prime Minister should have spoken about it. The BJP had promised to fulfill our demands including reservation but not a single word was said about it by any Minister during Tuesday’s Rohtak rally. This has left the Jat community disappointed again,” Malik said.
“Instead of making any announcement, the BJP leaders only told lies about taking initiatives for the welfare of farmers,” he alleged.
The AIJASS chief also said that we will be holding a meeting in Rohtak on October 15 to chalk out a strategy for holding protest over our demands. We will also hold campaign against the BJP in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which will go to assembly polls in next two months, he added.
The Jat outfit had earlier announced to hold protest dharnas at the events of Chief Minister Manohar Lal and Finance Minister Capt. Abhimanyu. The protest dharnas were being held in rural areas in Rohtak, Jhajjar, Dadri, Bhiwani, Hisar, Kaithal, Jind, Panipat and Sonipat.
Amid the growing resentment among the Jat community over their unfulfilled demand of reservation in educational institutions and government jobs, the BJP Government with a non-Jat leader Manohar Lal as its head, was hoping to pacify the community with Prime Minister’s event at Congress’ bastion Rohtak.
Hawa Singh Sangwan, who is heading another faction of the AIJASS in Haryana said, “People were expecting that the PM will make an announcement of a big project to be named after Sir Chhotu Ram but were left disappointed.”
He said, “The BJP has betrayed the Jats and have not fulfilled the promise of giving reservation to them. Now, we do not expect much from this party and ready to intensity our agitation.”
Sangwan headed AIJASS faction has already announced to hold a rally in December in Jind over their demand of reservation.
Notably, the Jats constitute nearly 29 percent of Haryana’s population and had provided the ruling BJP the necessary support to register its maiden victory in October 2014 assembly polls as well winning 7 out of 10 Lok Sabha seats earlier that year.
The Jats have significant presence in Rohtak, Hisar, Sonepat, Sirsa, Bhiwani, Jind and Jhajjar and the BJP is likely to face tough situation over the issue of unfulfilled demands of the Jat community in the 2019 polls.
Also, the BJP’s bold decision of having a non-Jat Chief Minister Manohar Lal continues to upset the Jats, an upper caste in the state.
The community has been demanding reservation in government jobs and educational institutions, general amnesty for those booked during the February 2016 Jat quota violence, reconsideration of criminal cases lodged against Jat agitators since 2010.
While Lok Sabha polls are likely to be held in May 2019, the assembly polls in Haryana are likely in October2019.
Haryana will be witnessing a rectangular political battle with BJP, Congress and INLD already kicking off election campaigns and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) entering the fray in Arvind Kejriwal’s home state.
