A very fine article showcasing the ground realities of socio-economic status of Jat's, Gurjars, Meena's.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/j.../1/176950.html
The Jat agitation in Haryana has turned violent again. Jats are the most powerful and prosperous caste in Haryana and have been ruling the state since its formation in November 1, 1966. The community has shown no aggressive interest to end honour killings which still plagues it. But its members block rail and road traffic and indulge in arson and violence to demand the extraordinary benefit, reservation for the backward class. This is despite the fact that Jats do not need the quota.
These protests remind me of the Gurjar agitation in Rajasthan between 2006 and 2008. That was the most violent phase of the state since Independence. It cost 70 lives in police firing and a few hundred crores to arson. It disrupted rail services and the crucial New Delhi-Mumbai route for weeks together. Gurjars were forced to launch their demand for reservation after Rajasthan granted Jats OBC status. They still haven't got it. Jats are powerful, educated and prosperous in Rajasthan. They got OBC status through a rather peaceful agitation which lasted less than two years. Since then, Jat dominance of this category has reduced the castes that were originally granted OBC status to the sidelines in government jobs. Castes, such as Gurjars, which used to find it difficult to compete with other OBCs, are left with no chance to get government jobs after the inclusion of Jats. To counter this, the Gurjars want Scheduled Tribe status which will enable them to compete with castes that are as good or as bad as them.
There is a peculiar trend that every caste, which gets reservation, adopts a rigid stand, begrudging entry of other castes into their category. The more powerful it is amongst their category of reservation, the more intolerant it is of other castes, howsoever deserving, to share it. In Rajasthan, the Meenas of the plains and the Chambal ravines have been the single largest beneficiaries of the ST quota. They have been cornering most employment at the cost of real needy ones such as the Bhil Meena, who live in Udaipur, Banswara and Dungarpur. But well off Meenas of the first category oppose any bifurcation of ST category to allow poor and more deserving ones a share. When Gurjars tried to get into the ST bracket, both the Meena groups got together to oppose it. No government in Rajasthan can dare recommend ST status to Gurjars who live in exactly the same condition as Meenas in the plains do. Meenas are politically very powerful like Jats but Gurjars do not enjoy that influence.
When Jats got reservation, they ensured the OBC category was not bifurcated. Original OBC categories wanted that they be given a separate quota within OBC, to safeguard them from Jat encroachment. They failed. But even those demanding protection from Jats, say, castes like Mali, do not want Gurjars, who are less privileged in society, given a separate quota within the quota.
Gian Prakash Pilania is a retired Director General of Police of Rajasthan, who has been confined to a wheelchair, for many years. Even in that condition, he led the Jat agitation for OBC quota in Rajasthan and is a BJP MP now. Once I asked him if Jats really required reservation in jobs to which he said he was against reservation. The demand for Jat reservation was not for jobs but for political power after OBC reservation in panchayat elections left out the emerging Jat leadership. Reservation in elections, which translates into power easily, is a major attraction.
I asked the same question to Satya Narain Singh, a retired IAS officer and a Mali by caste (Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is also a Mali). Singh too admitted that reservation per se for OBCs should not be there. "But tell us what should we do if other castes are getting it?" he asked.
Malis are OBC in Rajasthan. Singh opposed inclusion of Jats into OBC category unless castes like Malis were given a separate quota. As Meenas of the plains are different in social and economic status than those of the tribal belt, Malis in Jodhpur are better off than Malis elsewhere. They use surnames that are traditionally Rajput. Gehlot too comes from Jodhpur. That is why, there is also a demand that reservation need to change its criteria. It should not be state specific. Let it depends on a smaller unit, of a few blocks or a district. A Mali from Karauli should get it, not a Mali from Jodhpur.
What has been shocking is that every caste which gets reservation because it was discriminated against by a caste higher to it once upon a time, continues to practice untouchability in some form even today. Once I spent a night in the open in a village located in the Chambal ravines. The next morning when I used a public hand-pump and returned to my host, a Mali by caste, he asked me: "I hope you haven't used that hand-pump painted blue?" Why, I asked? That, he said, was meant for the Scheduled Castes. I asked him where does their sarpanch, who was a Scheduled Caste, sit when he visits their home? He said on the floor while Gurjars and Malis sat on chairs or charpoy. And when Gurjars and Malis took him to town to get their work done in offices, where did they eat? They travelled sitting next to each other and ate together on the same table in dhaba.
Why should such selfish Gurjars or Malis or any caste which practices untouchability, be given reservation? If STs or SCs practice discrimination in their respective sub-castes, including by not marrying into theirs, why should they be given reservation? After all, this is what higher castes did to them many decades ago. No caste that gets reservation shows any affirmative action for castes more needy than theirs.
Hisar is the focal point of agitation for Jat reservation in Haryana. I studied in Senior Model School there three decades ago. Jat students used to humiliate boys of Punjabi community calling them "refugees" from Pakistan. Many such migrants, who came to India following Partition, are still looked down by almost every other caste. The refugees have excelled through their sheer hard work, in business and in education. They do not get reservation. In Rajasthan, Jat Sikhs, the most powerful section of Sikhs, have been included in the OBC list. Refugees are excluded.
These days, a caste, which doesn't enjoy quota, makes a demand for reservation only when a reserved caste, which is near equal to it on all counts, is eating into its right and dominating it. Reservation comes with so many other benefits. It can offer a relaxation in age, in physical standards in police, in getting heavy concessions in fees, exclusive scholarships and loans at cheaper interests. That is how, in a recent examination for primary teachers, male candidates from the general category performed the worst. And many non-reserved younger, meritorious and fitter candidates lost to reserved ones in recruitment to constables in Rajasthan Police.