National

With Some Reservations

Congress puts Jats on the OBC list. But the question is whether this will bring in the votes.

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With Some Reservations
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People Of The Plough

  • There are 8.5 crore Jats in India, about 6.5% of the population. Seen as among the last wave of ancient migrations. Not easy to fit into the chaturvarnya system.
  • In Haryana, they are around 27 per cent of the population; in Rajasthan 14 per cent; and in western Uttar Pradesh, a little over 10 per cent.
  • Jats hold the electoral key in more than 30 of the 226 Lok Sabha seats in nine north Indian states: Haryana, NCT of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar
  • Jats in Rajasthan have cornered IAS jobs and most other central services
  • Mandal Commission had recommended their inclusion in 1980, but this was not notified till 2014.
  • Jat leader and former PM Charan Singh had opposed OBC status
  • In politcs, Jats have been dominant: One PM, one deputy PM, 18 CMs, 3 LS speakers, 13 governors and eight ambassadors
  • 61 leading actors and models are from the community
  • Influential political leaders include Sir Chottu Ram, Devi Lal, Natwar Singh,  Bansi Lal, Ajit Singh, G.S. Tohra, Mahendra Tikait, Deepender Hooda
  • Other faces include filmstars Randeep Hooda and Mallika Sherawat, wrestler Sushil Kumar, shuttler Saina Nehwal, and cricketer Virender Sehwag

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On the official website of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), there is a telling epistle. Dated February 26, 2014, it’s from a certain A.K. Mangotra, the commission’s member-secretary, to S. Bhargava, a secretary in the Union ministry of social justice & empowerment. Turning down the Centre’s request for including Jats in the central list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in nine states, it categorically states that “they are not socially and educationally backward”.

A week might be a long time in politics, but it does get shorter and hectic ahead of elections. Within days of the letter, the Centre was dissing the NCBC and granting Jats OBC status in the nine states they live in—Haryana, UP, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Him­achal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar—conceding a demand (from some sections of the community) that’s been hanging for some 35 years. And within a month of Jains getting minority status, the Congress-led UPA has shown how desperate it has become. Both decisions have raised questions about political calculations overriding concern for improving society.

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For sure, the NCBC’s recommendati­ons—based on 51 representations for and 58 against inclusion in the OBC list—are not binding on the Centre. But the abrupt rejection exposes the haste of the UPA-II government. Consider these factors:

  • The NCBC has for over 10 years kept Jats off the OBC list
  • Community-based surveys to evaluate backwardness are still under way
  • Jats take pride in the work ethic, espe­­cially as hardy farmers, and seldom count themselves as poor
  • Jats say they are poorly rep­­re­sented in government jobs but it does not present a credible case for backwardness: in Delhi, the Jat literacy rate is 85 per cent.

The Centre gave the first indication of its mood to listen to Jats in May 2011, when it empowered the NCBC to review its recommendations. Till then, the NCBC did not have the power to do so. On June 20, 2011, the NCBC took up the Jat issue but decided to wait till the socio-economic caste census was over. Next month, it told the Centre, adequate data was necessary before deciding. Two years later, in a letter dated December 26, 2013, the Union ministry of social welfare informed the NCBC of a cabinet meeting on the Jat issue and asked it to reconsider it decision. The NCBC in turn then requested the Indian Council of Social Science Research to set up an expert committee to survey the community.

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During these years, Jats had off and on agitated for reservation, blocking railway tracks and highways, clashing with police. What probably forced the decision on the Congress was the Muza­ffarnagar riots of 2013, in which Muslims bore the brunt of Jat rage, signalling a tilt towards the BJP. In western UP, it’s not uncommon to hear of late, “We’re Hindus first, Jats later”. That tilt showed in the Delhi elections, in which Jat-dominated rural areas all went to the BJP.

“Reservation is no longer a policy but a ploy for political benefits,” says D.L. Sheth of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). “OBC quotas are about backwardness, with caste only an indicator.” So what does the Congress hope to achieve, considering that it might alienate other communities on the OBC list—for the OBC quota can’t go beyond 27 per cent and consequently others’ share in government jobs will shrink?

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Consider Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress is in a shambles. Jat leader and former PM the late Chaudhary Charan Singh was against putting his community on the OBC list. But his son Ajit Singh—who allied his party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, with the Congress— had set a quota for Jats as a condition for the alliance. But he’s now learnt to be looking at a tie-up with the BJP. So the political dividends seem unclear.

A Jat leader of Uttar Pradesh says, “This cry for reservation is all being done to project Ajit Singh before elections. Indeed, it’s an attempt to divide the community.” The Congress and the RLD face a credibility crisis with Jats, who have slowly but perceptibly tilted towards the BJP in the recent years. Rajaram Meel, who led the Jat agitations in Rajasthan, says the young Jat no longer votes “like his chacha”—they vote independent of family affiliations, and leaders like Charan Singh are mere abstractions in their worldview.

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“The Congress lost in four states bec­ause it did not honour the Jats’ demand,” says Yeshpal Malik, who led one of the agitating Jat groups of Hary­ana. So, will he ask Jats to vote for the Congress? Not really. “It’s one thing to support a community,” he says. “It’s another for a party to move with a people over time. The Congress’s prospects will depend on how they deal with us in the long term.”

So how do the Jats of today view themselves? Take the Jat Mahasabha of Rajasthan. Its coat of arms displays a ploughshare and a gun: clearly no sign of backwardness there. But it’s a slew of Jat Mahasabhas like this that spearheaded the reservation movement. Udayveer Malik, who heads a Jat Sabha in Meerut and has for over seven years taken part in the Jats’ quota stir, can’t understand why the NCBC never saw their point of view. “We didn’t just agitate. We submitted a quintal of information on Jats from Uttar Pradesh,” he says. “We don’t know why the NCBC report is the way it is.”

Perhaps it’s because the community failed to present a strong and united case. “Many Jats went to the NCBC and claimed they are powerful land-owners and proud of their dominant status,” says K.S. Sangwan, a retired professor of M.D. College, Rohtak, whose survey got Jats included in the Haryana OBC list in 2012. “These wealthy, powerful Jats spoke only for themselves, forgetting about their impoverished rural Jat brothers, who probably hadn’t even heard of the NCBC’s public hearings.” He says shrinking land-holdings, diminishing returns from agriculture, the terrible status of Jat women, the prevalence of khap diktats—all point to Jat backwardness.

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While that’s true to an extent, the Cen­­tre’s decision is raising questions. It may well be contested in court. Quotas for Jats from Bihar and Gujarat—where the community has a negligible prese­nce—point to a poorly thought out decision, sans groundwork, sans surveys. As is typical of a political decision.

By Anuradha Raman and Pragya Singh

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