THE OTHER SIDE: Jat Reservation

My Doomsday Moment

I was excited for my first day of my first job at McDonald's Rohtak. This job was suitable for me as it allow me to continue my studies. I was prepared for hard work because my friend who worked there told me about extra workloads for newcomers. It was after I delivered my first order mob of hundred people entered in the mall where my workplace my McD was also situated and started destroying everything. I was frightened with their screams and shouts. They were not only destroying property but also looting things and attacking people. Soon some twenty to twenty five people with lathis in their hand also entered in the McDonald. I was near the entrance, they pushed me down and started beating me. I was hoping that someone would come and save me but all staff was receiving the same treatment even girls were not spared. They started setting the mall on fire, somehow we all came out before the fire started. I was witnessing my workplace in blaze. Our manager told us to go home now. My home was not very far from the mall so I reached home receiving few more blows from the people on the road.

When I reached home my mother was standing and crying outside with my younger sister as our Jat landlord threw them out of the house. She told her to wait till her husband and son reached home but he didn't listen to her. Our things were scattered on the road many of which were picked up by the agitators. After sometime my father came whose condition wasn't different from me. He took us to our relatives nearby where things were controlled by the army. My mother was worried about my elder sister who hasn't returned home from her work from Murthal. My father has informed her to come to this new place where we were staying before he came to pick us but it was long time ago. As night approached my father was also worrying for her. It was then we heard knock on the door. My sister entered with torn clothes, wounds and bruises were visible on her body. My mother hugged her and started crying, my father remained still for few minutes and then collapsed on the ground. I lost my workplace, my home, my father, my sister was raped and soon fire engulfed that house in which we were staying with all its occupants.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Riotous Reservation

Reservation is an arrangement in Indian constitution which is committed to provide a level playing field for backward and underprivileged sections of the society. With time this arrangement became a vote guarantee scheme for the political parties and on their behest at several occasion this dirty politics have turned into bloodbaths. The reservation system on the other hand became so inept with the changing scenarios that its benefits never reached underprivileged and backward classes which resulted in more exploitation of these classes along with creation of uneven society.

Jat Reservation demand was not new and such protests which have tendency to go violent were common occurrence from last so many years but this time Haryana government failed in controlling the agitators. The protest was not a mere protest but an organised mob rampantly attacking, looting and burning railway stations, police stations, buses, cars, trucks, malls, shops, etc, they also raped women during their agitation. Protesters even attacked army men and blocked their entry which forced army to open fire on them. The way these armed agitators were leading the protest in a planned manner were also hinting towards a backdoor organizer. Pressurizing government by cutting Delhi's food and water supply not looked like mob thinking. Haryana government’s wrong estimation of the intensity of the Jat movement made it uncontrolled. Victims of this violence accused police and government inaction behind the heightened protesters attacks.

Comments of BJP MP Ram Saini about Jats added fuel to the fire which turned reservation movement into inter caste fighting. The protesters selectively destroyed non-Jats establishments. The agitation only ended when state government promised reservation and central government agreed to form a committee for the issue. This agitation episode and its outcome have set a wrong example by succumbing to the demands of violent agitators. Now others will also resort to such extreme protests while demanding anything from the government. Those behind the violence must be identified and punished harshly to teach a lesson to all those who think nothing wrong in damaging national property for personal gains. Armed mob of thousands destroying national property on state roads and streets are more dangerous for country's integrity than some vague slogans by a bunch of people in a city corner.

This act of violence should be an eye opener not only for government but for all political parties who for time and again have used reservation to ensure their votes. In present political and social environment removing reservation is not possible but it is necessary to have different look to reservation process. It must be ensured that its benefits reach to the one for which it was intended. There are many upper caste people who make fake caste certificates for getting benefits of reservation depriving lower castes from its advantages and even in the lower castes only a small section is getting help through reservation. Most of all we must identify ourselves as Indians first and then with some caste, religion, region or race. National interest is higher than personal gains. Till next post God Bless India.