APEX COURT’S RULING BRINGS JAT QUOTA DEMAND UNDER FOCUS

The SC’s decision to scrap a quota for Marathas has brought under focus similar agitations for reservation by other dominant communities.

In Haryana, where a law granting 10% quota for Jats is being held in abeyance, leaders of the agitation said they will call a mega meeting of major communities to decide the next course of action. According to All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti chief Yashpal Malik, the apex court verdict was on expected lines. He said now a political consensus is required.

“We will call a meeting of representatives of Jat, Maratha, Patel and other communities whose reservation has been stuck down,” said All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti chief Yashpal Malik, who was leading the agitation for Jat reservation. “If this reservation is not valid as per the constitution, as the judgment says, then the people who have provided reservation beyond this limit should be punished...,” he added.

He said the governments have fooled people by giving them reservation without following norms. Endorsing his views, Hawa Singh Sangwan, Haryana unit head of the Akhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, sought a political consensus.

Violence broke out in Haryana on February 2016 over demands for a separate jat quota or including the community in the other backward class category. Later, the state government enacted a law to provide 10% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to Jats and the five other castes. In September 2017, the Punjab and Haryana HC ordered this law be kept in abeyance till the Haryana Backward Classes Commission, determines extent and quantum of quota in jobs and educational institutions.