Jats need to get it right

The Haryana Government and the Jat leadership, both having lost moral authority, seem to have adopted positions designed to wear the other down. But even as neither has the courage to take definitive action, the state and its people are being held to ransom, which the government cannot allow, and the Jat leaders better not take liberties with the law if they want to hang on to whatever little sympathy remains for their cause.

The Jats have demonstrated over the past few days that they do retain the power to mobilise large numbers, but have presented hardly any valid justification to do so. Their demands regarding compensation for the dead or injured have already been accepted. There is a dispute regarding the kind of jobs to be offered to the families that lost their members in the violent agitation last year. That may be reason to agitate, but not to threaten the blocking of essential supplies, laying siege to vast areas, not paying bills or repaying loans. As for cases against those who indulged in violence, that to begin with was an untenable demand. An act of crime cannot be condoned, no matter what the provocation. Yet, most of the cases have been dismissed for various reasons and only a few of the most serious kind remain, which no one with the slightest sense of justice can expect to be overlooked.

The core demand of reservation already stands committed to courts, and the Jats too have accepted that. Then what could be at the heart of the apparent anger in the community? The short-term reason could well be frustration at having lost a hold in the government, and therefore influence in Haryana. The BJP government was selected by a majority mandate, including from the Jat community. If they do not like the result, the only option is to wait peacefully till the next election. As for the genuine feeling in the community that it has lost out in the course of development, it must realise that none of this confrontation is leading them anywhere out of that situation. A good place to begin would be to question their own leadership’s priorities.