Jat agitation: Govt blinks, says Haryana Jats will get OBC quota

Eight days into mayhem in Haryana over the Jat reservation stir that led to the loss of 12 lives and property worth nearly Rs 20,000 crore, the government on Sunday said it will give the Other Backward Class (OBC) status to the community.

The announcement came after a high-level meeting of Jat and BJP leaders, chaired by home minister Rajnath Singh, in New Delhi.

BJP's Haryana in-charge Anil Jain, who attended the meeting, told reporters that the government will soon form a committee to work out modalities and a bill will be introduced in the Haryana assembly in this regard.

Much as it raises questions on whether the government handing out OBC quota to Jats will stand the legal scrutiny – it failed to in 2014, when the Supreme Court rejected it – doubts remained whether the protestors would back off and stop violence post the announcement on Sunday.

Reacting to the government's decision, the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) member Yashpal Malik said the "immediate effort would be to ensure that the violence stops".

However, Haryana agriculture minister OP Dhankhar and BJP MP from Muzaffarnagar Sanjeev Balyan claimed the agitators will clear the roads and public places they have seized after this announcement.

The government's announcement came just in time when the members of the Jat community in western parts of Uttar Pradesh had declared to intensify their protest in support of the protesting Haryana Jats.

Ironically, even as there have been sustained violent eruptions by the community across Haryana and parts of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, there is no clarity on who is the most influential leader representing them and thus the communication gap. As a result, protestors till late on Sunday evening were confused how to respond to government's announcement on allowing them quota.

Thousands of travellers and truckers remained stuck on all roads branching out of Delhi towards Haryana. "We have been stuck since Saturday night," said a person who identified himself as Gopal Nandi from Kolkata. Nandi along with 55 others, including women and children are on a bus ride to Amritsar and stuck on the Delhi-Sonepat border. The road blockade at Sonepat and other places on the Grand Trunk road and a rail blockade at Panipat have cut off Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir from the national capital.

Off the Delhi-Chandigarh Highway, a police picket set on fire by protesters at Barota village in Sonepat district on Saturday night remained abandoned.

Reports, however, suggested that roads were being cleared on Rohtak-Jind highway.

Curfew imposed in seven districts of Haryana in the wake of agitation continued as the administration took precaution.