Shadow of Jat agitation looms large on Lok Sabha polls in Haryana

The 2016 pro-reservation mayhem has pushed Haryana to extreme levels of social polarisation and inter-community distrust

On February 20, 2016, when the town of Rohtak was burning with violent pro-reservation Jat mobs on the rampage, three people belonging to three different communities saw their lives and outlook towards each other change forever.
 
The tragedy that struck their lives that day translated into disgust for each other’s communities – the kind of vengeance and hatred, the shadow of which looms large on the Lok Sabha polls and Assembly elections scheduled later this year.
 
Krishan Gopal Saini (54) — a member of the Saini community, a backward caste that comprises five per cent of Haryana’s population — opened a tyre shop in 2015 at Rohtak’s Sukhpura locality.
 
Saini, who named the shop after his caste, had invested most of his provident fund money saved during the 30 years of his service as an employee of a tyre company to start his small business.

 
One day, he got a call at 1:30 pm informing him that his shop was on fire. Saini walked from his home to the shop as he feared that if he rode a bike, the raging mob may attack him.
 
When he reached his shop, the tyres were still on fire. Saini called the police and fire service but got no response. He used water from the open sewer running outside his shop to try to douse the flames. At the end of it, all that remained of Saini’s tyre shop was a charred room. Saini approached the insurance company with a claim of Rs 18 lakh – of which he received only Rs 7 lakh. Saini, who had recently married off two of his daughters, dipped into his savings and rebuilt his business in three months after the carnage. But this time, he dropped his family name from the sign board. Saini Tyre Shop was renamed Durga Tyre Shop. 
 
Saini said, “The Jats saw Saini written on the shop board and specifically targeted it. Me, my family and the entire Saini community will never vote for Jats or those associated with them. I have spent my whole life in Rohtak and have never seen anything like this. We had good relations with Jats in our neighbourhood. All I now have is hatred in my heart for these people.”
 
 Saini’s worst moment may have been over, but for 63-year-old Devender Bhalla, scars of the pro-reservation Jat agitation are hard to erase.

Devender Bhalla says Jat owned shops next to his shop were spared by mobs | Photo: Sai Manish

Bhalla (63) runs a spectacle shop at Medical Chowk – the hub of Rohtak’shealthcare business. He belongs to the Punjabi community, which comprises eight per cent of Haryana’s population and dominates trading and retailing in the state’s suburban centres. On the fateful day, Bhalla got a call informing him about smoke billowing from his premises. He reached his shop to find that everything was gutted – his stock of spectacles, lenses, lens cutting machine and auto-refractor. The glass panels had melted and his basement walls were blackened with smoke. Bhalla estimated his loss to be over Rs 9 lakh. With no insurance, he dipped into his savings to resurrect his business within a few months. Bhalla observed that most of the Jat-owned shops on the other side of the road were spared by the mobs. Jat mobs even attacked a hospital owned by a Punjabi doctor next to Bhalla’s shop. “To see my hard work of 12 years being destroyed by a community demanding reservation was a big setback. I stay in a locality with a sizeable number of Jats and relations were always cordial. There were even Jat-Punjabi marriages. We have seen Jat processions for reservations before but nothing like this ever. That incident has changed relations with Jats forever. Once a snake enters your home, there is only one way to deal with it,” said Bhalla.

 
Down the road from Bhalla’s shop is Bharat Gun House. Its owner is Vijay Saharan, a man in his 40s and a Jat by caste. The Jat community, which is widely believed to have spearheaded the 2016 violence, makes up 29 per cent of Haryana’s population. Saharan saw a mob of 15 people enter his first floor gunshop but decided to observe the mayhem from a distance, fearing his security.
 
Unlike Saini’s and Bhalla’s establishments, his gun shop wasn’t burnt down. The mob opened the strong room of his shop where guns were stocked. At the end of the loot, six double barrell guns, two revolvers, a rifle and a pistol were gone.
 
The police in Saharan’s case acted swiftly and managed to recover five of the guns. The remaining ones were never found. He suffered a loss of Rs 33 lakh. Saharan claims he got some compensation from the government which wasn’t enough. “The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government failed to prevent or control the situation. A free hand was given to these thieves. I am a Jat and I know the anger against our community. Jats are not violent as they are being made out to be. They are also the most polite and helpful. I know things will never be the same again,” said Saharan.

Krishan Gopal Saini at his tyre shop which was burnt down by Jat mobs in 2016 | Photo: Sai Manish

The extreme polarisation in Haryana has deep political implications for parties. For one, the anti-Jat sentiment among communities like the Banias, Punjabis, Sainis and Yadavs would further strengthen the BJP chances in the state’s 10 Parliamentary seats. The Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD’s) split means that the Jats have only the Congress to opt for. Many Jats in rural Rohtak and Hisar still looked at the BJP with suspicion for appointing a Punjabi as chief minister. Former CM Bhupinder Hooda, a Jat, is now the most prominent face of the Congress in the state. While Hooda is contesting from Sonipat, his son Deependra is contesting from Rohtak. Meanwhile, the BJP has fielded only one Jat candidate. BJP’s Jat candidate from Hisar, Brijendra Singh, is an IAS officer and son of former Union minister Birender Singh. Secondly, the anti-Jat polarisation in the state puts Dalit voters in a strong position to influence the electorate. Dalits comprise almost a fourth of Haryana’s population. They were mostly left unscathed in the 2016 violence by Jat mobs.
 
In Kharkhara village, a Dalit-dominated village in Hisar district, the community seems mostly at ease with the current dispensation. Birendra Kumar, a landless Dalit labourer, said, “Most of the Jats have land. From the land, they get food. Almost all of them own buffaloes. Reservation should be given to communities who are incapable of ensuring their and their family’s survival. We got cooking gas from the Modi government and recently the state has advertised a lot of Group D vacancies which will be filled by us (scheduled castes).”  While Dalits have assumed greater importance in view of the anti-Jat sentiment in the state, the impact of the strong anti-BJP sentiment among Jats is an unknown variable.
 
Before the BJP came to power in the state, Haryana always voted out and voted in a party with a CM from the Jat community.
 
Hawa Singh Sangwan, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, said, “Jat votes are always divided. If we all voted in the same way, we would determine who comes to power in the state. Right now, the CM of the state is a Punjabi who migrated from Pakistan. These Punjabis are less than 10 per cent of the state population while Jats are 30 per cent (sic). The BJP is creating fear in the minds of Punjabis and Banias about Muslims being a threat to them.”