#dnaEdit: Jat agitation- Responsibility of all parties to create roadmap for reservation

The outbreak of large-scale violence in Haryana during the Jat agitation for Other Backward Classes reservation is a worrying development. The fresh demands by communities hitherto not eligible for reservation has put state governments in a bind because these agitations have been accompanied by violence and disruption of normal life. This strategy of building pressure on governments by placing them under extreme duress is now being emulated across several states. First attempted by the Gujjars of Rajasthan who wanted Scheduled Tribe status instead of OBC reservation, demands for backward class reservations have led to violent protests by Patidars in Gujarat and Kapus in Andhra Pradesh in recent times. Though the Jat issue has been festering for some time, the political contours of the current outbreak cannot be ignored. The Jat community — from which most of Haryana’s Chief Ministers have hailed — has not taken too kindly to the BJP’s elevation of ML Khattar. While the Congress has sensed a political opening in these reservation movements, the gains from such political opportunism will be short-lived.

Until political parties sit together and deliberate the success, failures and the future roadmap of the reservation strategy — in short a comprehensive review — the State will keep fumbling for an appropriate response. The Jat demand for reservation is hinged on their contention that despite being a dominant and landholding community, it is socially and educationally backward. The difficulty with accepting such arguments is that slotting a dominant community in a reserved category defeats the purpose of affirmative action, which is meant to uplift the weakest sections. It is unfortunate that the political approach to the OBC reservation policy led to much subversion and distortion. Using political heft, many undeserving groups have found their way into the OBC category. The creamy layer — an idea to exclude those financially well off — has been undermined by the liberal relaxation of the income criteria. Recently, the Supreme Court quashed the flawed notification of central reservation for Jats and the Bombay high court acted similarly against the Maharashtra government’s 16 per cent reservation for Marathas. On Jat reservation, the court faulted the Centre for acting without the consent of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), the statutory body ascertaining the claims and counter-claims for OBC category inclusion. 

It is interesting to note that the NCBC, while recommending the Rajasthani Jats’ inclusion in 1997 for OBC reservation, rejected the claims of their counterparts from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh. The NCBC noted that these Jats did not suffer from intermediaries like jagirdars and zamindars, they lived in areas directly under British rule or princely rulers belonging to the Jat community, had dependable irrigation, and had access to political power in the late-medieval and modern period. The Commission also noted the positive influence of the Arya Samaj movement against caste-based inequalities on Jat self-esteem. To tackle the Jat agitation, the Haryana government must fall back on its Backward Class Commission to study the socio-economic conditions of Jats in comparison with other OBC groups. But unless this Commission is insulated from political pressures, and is staffed with eminent social scientists and economists, its credibility will be questioned. Already, we have a national government wary of releasing the results of the caste census. The census would have offered a more reliable count of caste groupings in the country and their socio-economic condition, and helped distinguish fact from political rhetoric. That many communities continue to look forward to access to government jobs, benefits and higher education institutions through reservation, despite the growth of the private sector, foreshadows the fierce competition for scarce resources in the decades to come.