Jat quota stir: Manohar Lal Khattar govt faces its biggest test

The BJP government is facing its toughest time in Haryana since it took power one-and-a-half-year ago. Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar is facing his biggest test in Jat agitation which has now turned violent. The Supreme Court had in 2015 struck down the decision of the previous UPA government to include them in the list of OBCs.

Given the political significance of the Jats in Haryana, there are several challenges for Mr Khattar to overcome at this point of time.

The biggest challenge before him is dealing with several groups of Jats that do not have a single leader. These groups are spread across different Jat-dominated districts in the heartland of the state. Mr Khattar’s problem can be gauged from the fact that no less than 126 leaders were called by him on Wednesday to look for a solution to the problem. Unlike the previous regime of Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda that was primarily dealing with All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti led by Yashpal Malik, Mr Khattar is facing multiple groups not only of Jats but also khap leaders who have also jumped into the fray. The Haryana government also miscalculated the speed at which the agitation and violence spread across the districts.

The government could not gauge the importance of approaching Jat leaders on the ground to deal with the issue. It is being pointed out that the two prominent Jat faces in his Cabinet — agriculture minister Om Prakash Dhankar and finance minister Captain Abhimanyu — were quite restrained in their approach. In addition to this, Mr Khattar should have utilised the services of other important Jat leaders from the state, including Union minister Birender Singh and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh MP Dharambir.

Being a non-Jat himself is proving to be a disadvantage for Mr Khattar as the Jat campaign on the ground has been accusing Mr Khattar of denying them the reservation benefits as he is a non-Jat who, according to them, does not sympathise with the community.

Being a Punjabi with little local connect across state, it is difficult for him to get support from the powerful Jat community that constitutes around 26 per cent of Haryana’s electorate and has around 30 representatives out of a total of 90 in the state assembly.

Khattar is also facing difficulties in managing the split within his party on the issue. His failure to stop Kurukshetra MP Rajkumar Saini from making anti Jat statements on the reservation issue has led to the problem being compounded. Although he went public on Friday saying that the statements made by Saini be considered withdrawn, the damage had been done.

On the other hand if he is not able to grant reservation to the agitators, there can be an escalation in the agitation and the Jats would further get polarized towards the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).

Those opposed to granting Jats reservation are trying to put across the argument that quota for Jats would mean one more claimant for share in the pie. It is the powerful communities of Sainis, Yadavs and Gurjars who are opposed to reservation for Jats.