Being Manohar Lal Khattar: Jat agitation tests non-Jat CM

The government appears to have been caught unawares by how quickly the agitation escalated into violence. At least 10 people have died, normal life in most of the state remains disrupted, and the effects of the agitation have spilled into Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. The collapse of law and order forced Haryana to call in the Army, the first time in memory, but even Army officials said they could not take action unless authorised by the civilian administration. From across violence-hit districts, people have been making desperate calls to the police for help as mobs torched their property, only to be told that the force was overwhelmed.

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Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has blamed the BJP’s “inexperience” for the breakdown, while Leader of the Opposition Abhay Chauthala called it “an utter failure” of governance. The protests, incidentally, have been the strongest in Hooda’s strongholds of Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonepat.

“The BJP should have anticipated this situation and invited all communities for talks. The government should have called an assembly session and settled the reservation issue,” Chautala said.

Unlike the leaders of the two opposition parties, and unlike most chief ministers that Haryana has had, Khattar is not of the Jat community, politically the most influential and powerful in the state. A senior official in the Haryana government told The Indian Express that for this reason, Khattar was tentative while dealing with Jat community leaders. “He does not have the confidence to take on the community, so his responses were weak,” said the official.

Asked why the police had been unable to restore law and order, a senior police officer said there were no orders from the government on how to deal with the protesters. “Even after protesters turned extremely violent, we did not get any orders to use force. It was not a situation that could not have been tackled with cane charges or firing of teargas shells,” another senior police officer said

Complicating the political and administrative challenge is that Jats form the bulk of the constabulary, and there were reports that some of them were unwilling to take on protesters of their own community. “Policemen just vanished from the scene. Some did not even bother to step out of their vehicles, while protesters went on looting shops and burning buildings,” one of the officers said.

In

a statement, DGP Yash Pal Singal responded to the accusations that certain police officers and personnel connived with the protesters and did not take adequate action. “These are generalised statements. If there is any specific incident about police personnel participating in the protests, it should be brought to our notice. Action shall be taken,” Singal said. And additional chief secretary (home) P K Das said, “Strict messages have been sent down the line. If any officer is found defying orders, strict action will be taken against him/her.”
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eeks after he had taken office in 2014, Khattar was thrown into the deep end of law and order by the standoff at the Rampal ashram in Barwala, where the NSG was called in for assistance. Now the Jat agitation has come after the government had appeared to believe, initially, that everything was under control.

As the state began to boil eight days ago, Khattar’s repeated assurances to community leaders that his government was prepared to accept all demands failed to cut any ice with protesters. As the tension kept escalating, the state’s political and administrative machinery did little other than issue appeals “with folded hands”. Twitter was full of such appeals from Khattar and others in his government. When the entreaties did not work, Khattar invited opposition leaders for an all-party meeting; it ended inconclusively.

Out of 47 BJP MLAs in Haryana, 39 including the chief minister are first-timers. On Saturday, Khattar told his cabinet colleagues and MLAs to fan out in their constituencies and pacify people. There were reports that Khattar himself was likely to go to Rohtak.

But the minister who spoke to The Indian Express said the situation on the ground had turned against the government. “Our workers are calling us desperately to come and save them from the mobs. As for Jats who had voted for us, we have squandered their support completely.”