All eyes on Jats’ resurgent politics in Haryana

AFTER 10 long years, things seem to be looking up for the Jats of Haryana. A Jat Chief Minister is a possibility in the upcoming Assembly elections. Even though the Jat community makes up just 26-28 per cent of the population, it has dominated the political and social landscape of the state because of its land-owning clout, its hold on government jobs and its sway over things that matter in the countryside. Jats were synonymous with Haryana until the BJP came to power in 2014. After winning the Assembly elections in the state for the first time on its own — without the crutch of a regional ally — the BJP installed a non-Jat Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, and began to patronise non-Jat communities such as other backward classes (OBCs), scheduled castes (SCs) and Punjabis, who had helped it win the polls. This diminished the Jat hegemony in the state civil secretariat and the channels of power that flow from it.

Before 2014, the BJP had been a junior coalition partner of a regional giant like the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) led by Om Prakash Chautala or the Haryana Vikas Party of strongman Bansi Lal. Three Chief Ministers prior to 2014 — the Congress’ Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chautala and Bansi Lal — who together ruled for almost two decades, pursued pro-Jat policies, and the community called the shots in governance. But as the Jat community began to be seen as a beneficiary of state largesse in government jobs and contracts, there was the inevitable disenchantment among the OBCs and SCs. The BJP successfully tapped into this resentment in the run-up to the 2014 Assembly elections, winning 47 of the 90 seats. Khattar, a Punjabi from Karnal, was appointed the CM, prompting derogatory remarks from prominent Jat figures in Haryana. But few could fault the BJP for breaking free from the Jat identity politics in Haryana, and the party quickly filled a political vacuum first created in the mid-1990s by non-Jat CM Bhajan Lal, a Bishnoi.

Less than a year and a half after the 2014 state polls, the Jats led a violent agitation for reservation in government jobs in the OBC category. It was preceded by months of acrimony between non-Jat BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini and some Jat khap leaders; the former had threatened to resign from his seat if Jats were given reservation. For about 10 days, Jat youth went on the rampage, causing destruction in which 20 persons died and over 200 were injured. Houses and commercial establishments of Sainis and other non-Jats in the Rohtak-Jhajjar Jat strongholds were vandalised. A cleavage between the two caste blocs began to take shape. The Jat angst seemed to stem from its fall from an exalted position and sudden political marginalisation, leading many observers to point out that this was the community’s way of getting back at the powers who had “usurped their clout”.

In the 2019 Assembly polls, the saffron party fell short of a majority but managed to form the government with the help of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), which is led by the great-grandson of former Deputy PM Devi Lal, Dushyant Chautala. The JJP — splintered from the parent INLD — won 10 seats from its Jat stronghold, but the very act of aligning with the BJP government infuriated its Jat base. The party’s vote share shrank to a mere 0.87 per cent in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The Jats have clearly hit back at the JJP for supping with the enemy.

So, what’s happening in this proud and once formidable community in the run-up to the state elections? Sensing that, perhaps, this is the time when it may be possible to reclaim the levers of power from non-Jats, the Jats are seeing value in unity. The polarisation between the two caste blocs that had its genesis in the 2016 Jat reservation agitation has taken root, and it will manifest itself during the elections.

With Jat parties like the INLD and the JJP now on the fringes, the community is leaning towards the Congress’ Hooda, who has emerged in recent years as the undisputed leader of the Jats in the Deswali and Bangar belts. It is the 40-odd Jat-dominated Assembly seats from these areas that every Jat political outfit tries to secure. During the 2016 stir, the BJP had accused Hooda of inciting members of the community. Ironically, the BJP’s attack has helped him not just consolidate his hold over the community but also to expand it to Bangar and other areas where the INLD and JJP earlier held sway.

The BJP has lined up Jat leaders like Kiran Choudhry, Capt Abhimanyu and Om Prakash Dhankar, among others. But all the king’s horses and all the king’s men cannot undo the hurt and anger of the farming community. The indifference of the Narendra Modi-led Central Government during the 2020-21 farmers’ agitation still rankles with them. “They did not even bother to speak to us. It shows their arrogance,” is a refrain among influential Jat khaps. Add to it the cavalier manner in which Haryana’s wrestling girls were treated by the BJP leadership last year when they protested at the Jantar Mantar against alleged sexual harassment by former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, then president of the Wrestling Federation of India. Feted by the Congress all over the state, Vinesh Phogat has joined the party, while the ruling BJP gave a lukewarm response to the star wrestler when she returned after the Paris Olympics last month.

To make things worse for itself, the state government, now led by Nayab Singh Saini — the OBC CM appointed by the BJP just four months ago — recommended gallantry awards for police officers for the controversial use of force against farmers protesting on the Shambhu and Khanauri borders in February. The crackdown by the police had led to the death of a farmer and injuries to several others. The attempt to honour these policemen, whose alleged actions led to a civilian casualty, is another addition in the Jat arsenal against the BJP. As election activities hot up, all eyes are on the Jats and their resurgence in politics.