BJP wants to divide and rule
It seems the stakes of the BJP in allowing the Jat protest to escalate further is far greater, perhaps with a cynical aim to now pit Jats against OBCs and non-Jat groups
For over 10 days Haryana burnt, scores of lives were lost and the exchequer suffered in excess of `20,000 crore. No matter how strongly we condemn vandalism, blaming only the protests by Jats (which did turn violent due to some anti-social elements egged on by the state’s complicit inaction) would be a dishonest assessment of the situation that would end up absolving the “original sins” of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Haryana and at the Centre. Of course, violence cannot be justified, but then the BJP itself has been the biggest votary of the much loathed “action-reaction” brand of politics, be it in Gujarat 2002 or Ayodhya.
The problem is a simple one to diagnose and treat, provided there is political willingness to follow the Ambedkarian social justice narrative of the Constitution and not the Manuvadi programme of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. But as a pracharak of the Sangh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have his loyalties mixed up.
Having used Jats for electoral gains, be it Haryana or in western Uttar Pradesh, they felt cheated when the BJP government gave conflicting signals on a long-standing demand of reservation for Jats within the Other Backward Class quota, after having paid lip service to it. If, as claimed in its election manifesto for Haryana, the BJP was indeed committed to this then why not restore the Supreme Court decision (which struck down the unique formula which the previous government devised to meet expectations of Jats and other communities) by means of an ordinance that would take less than five minutes to be issued just like the one Mr Modi promulgated to snatch away parcels of lands held by farmers, both Jats and non-Jats? Why wait till the next Assembly session?
For over a year, since the decision of the apex court in March 2015 (which many attribute to a fixed match by the anti-reservationist lobby of legal officers of the BJP government), Mr Modi and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar failed to move an inch on the promises made to Jat leaders, including Mahendra Singh Tikait. They peddled false hopes just like they dangled empty promises in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections of depositing into our accounts that now elusive `15 lakh of black money that they were going to bring back from Swiss banks. Clearly, it seems the stakes of the BJP in allowing this to escalate further is far greater, perhaps with a cynical aim to now pit Jats against OBCs and non-Jat groups. This is similar to the “divide and rule” policy the BJP has used every now and then in Gujarat, western Uttar Pradesh, etc. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat says that apolitical committee should decide on reservation.