 "Jat community members shout slogns during their agitation for reservation near Mundka metro station in New Delhi on Friday")
Jats have been making this demand for years. The Indian government came out with a notification in March 2014 to include them in the OBC category in nine states. This notification was challenged in the courts and the SC scrapped it in March 2015. The review petition was rejected later as well. The same month, Prime Minister Modi met Jat leaders and promised them a resolution of this legal entangle and help include them in the OBC category.
Those of us who now live outside Rohtak, saw horrific pictures of large crowds going on a rampage through the city. It seemed like a scene from Robocop with the cops nowhere to be seen while markets were on fire. As pictures appeared on social media, it became depressing to see certain markets having been turned into heaps of burnt, twisted metal.
A friend called up members of the Haryana Ranji Cricket team to ask about their safety and was terrified to learn that one of the cricketers was hiding on the roof of his house with his family. Another became anxious about her parents who live atop their own hospital in town; saved perhaps by the fact that the hospital had nothing to loot and is situated opposite the Police lines where the army was airdropped. It was surreal to note the army had been unable to enter the city and had to take the air route as the roads leading to the city had been dug up by the protestors using JCB machines.
Calls to and from Rohtak never stopped. While the safety of family and friends was reassuring, the news (and sometimes, pictures) of a city being destroyed were ghastly. It was depressing to hear an acquaintance describe how people took off signages outside their shops in the area where he lived as they did not want the mobs to know that those shops were owned by Sainis.
The notorious BJP MP from Kurukshetra, Rajkumar Saini had been running a campaign against the Jat demand for inclusion as OBCs and his use of abusive language for an entire community went on unabated with the state government making no attempts to restrain him over the last few months. The BJP has now issued a show-cause notice to him for opposing the Jat demand.
Rohtak and surrounding districts of Jhajjar, Sonepat and Bhiwani contribute large numbers to the armed forces and also contribute the most to India’s biggest medal hauls in different sporting events. Rohtak is also one of the most important trading centres in the state besides being its unofficial political capital. It had been personally satisfying to see the city being transformed into a more liveable place between 2004 and 2014; development that has been destroyed in a madness over three days.
The last three days have been even more depressing because they showed what districts without law and order look like. People like me kept hoping for the madness to stop, for the government to assert itself and bring back a semblance of law and order. The hopes were belied.
The state government’s ineptitude was exposed first by its indifference to the peaceful agitation that had been going on for five days and then its mishandling of the situation when it became violent. I was reminded of a late night drive from Hisar to Rohtak a few years ago when Jats had blocked the highway near Hisar for the same demand. The state government had then been able to resolve the situation peacefully.
One had been worried by the lack of administrative response to the agitation over the days before it turned violent. I remember tweeting a news item on 17th February highlighting how things were getting serious for the residents. It is incomprehensible to note that the state government couldn’t imagine the threat it posed.
While the state government showed its inexperience in dealing with it, the central government was busy activating the entire security apparatus to search for five sloganeers from JNU, including Umar Khalid. It did not seem to consider the situation in Haryana inflammable. Haryana has now paid a heavy price for this ignorance.
There are a few questions that one wishes to ask both the state and central governments. Instead of focusing on real civic and administrative issues, the government led by Manohar Lal Khattar has been focusing on building cow sanctuaries and helping cow vigilantes. While the police has been pressed into helping these cow vigilante groups, why wasn’t such concern shown for the people of Haryana who have suffered because of the government’s ineptitude?
The state government had been more than concerned about introduction of Gita in school curriculum rather than focusing on what it was actually elected to do. The now transferred IG, Police, Rohtak Range has gone on record saying that for four days he had been requesting for twenty five companies of paramilitary forces but only three were granted. The government did not take its own officer’s warning seriously.
The central government needs to answer why the state government was not dismissed as large parts of the state had been lost to anarchy with the state apparatus nowhere to be seen. There is anger in the populace who ask why no government leader came to the rescue of cities and towns and their residents while mobs went on a rampage. Where was the prime minister, questioned a few angry friends of mine from college who now live in other parts of the country while their families live in Rohtak and other parts of the state.
It is perplexing to note that the PM did not find it worthwhile to be more hands-on in dealing with this dreadful situation. Why wasn’t the Kurukshetra MP pulled up for abusive language against an entire community? Why wasn’t he asked to not fan more violence by his talk of fighting back the Jats, as late as 19th of February? The PM did speak up on Sunday at a rally in Odisha where he castigated the opposition and NGOs. He blamed them for hatching conspiracies against his government. No word was said about Haryana.
"There should be a government in the state which would allow 'your Modi' to work in the state”, said Modi in the election campaign for the Haryana assembly elections. He asked for votes in his name and assured voters he would ensure Haryana’s development. Now, when Haryana burned, they wonder who was playing the fiddle.
Twitter: @bhayankur
