Jats threaten stir during Parliament session
Deepender Deswal
Tribune News Service
Hisar, September 13
The All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) has announced to re-launch an agitation for reservation to community during the winter session of Parliament in November.
The samiti said it was an attempt to mount pressure on the Centre ahead of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh elections.
The announcement was made at a rally in the district’s Mayyar village today.
Yashpal Malik, AIJASS president, read out eight resolutions to a gathering. The main demands included reservation to Jats under Other Backward Class (OBC) and withdrawal of cases registered against Jat youths during an agitation in February.
The Jat leader said the date of resuming the agitation would be announced after the schedule of Parliament session was out. “There will be a dharna in at least one place in each of 21 districts in Haryana,” he said, adding the samiti would keep on negotiating with the state government. “In case the government takes a stand opposite to its previous one, the AIJASS will be forced to start the agitation immediately.”
“Jat Sankalp rallies and Jat Aarakshan Sandesh yatras will be organised in three states before the Assembly elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah have failed to fulfil their promise of providing Jats with reservation in Central jobs and educational institutions,” Malik said.
He further said, “We had forced the previous Congress government to approve the OBC quota by opposing its candidates during Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan elections.”
He said political parties had betrayed them and there were some traitors in the community who had made deals with the governments at the cost of community’s interest.
Malik lashed out at Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar who had cautioned people to be beware of “outsiders” during the Jind rally. “The governments had tried to threaten me. But I am here to serve the community’s cause,” he added.
The samiti urged Jats to collect funds for the families of youths lodged in jails. A group of youths from Delhi gave money to the families of Sunil Sheoran, Vijay Kadwasra and Sandeep Kumar who were killed during an agitation stir in Mayyar.
Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Parbandhak Committee (HSGMC) leader Jagdish Singh Jhinda, and Dalit activists Birbal Lamba and Brahma Nand supported the demand for reservation from the stage.
They said if reservation to Jats was granted, it would have no effect on reservation to Dalits. Jhinda also offered a siropa to Malik and the families of three Jat youths who died during agitations.
