The Jat quota protests by the community of Jats in Haryana is set to hit Delhi on Friday and will continue into February. Until now, the protests have been limited to districts of Haryana like Sonepat, Karnal and Jhajjar and Gurgaon city.
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The protestors demand reservation for their community in jobs and education in the state. The protests, which had initially started in 2016, had turned violent leading to deaths of dozens of people and numerous arrests. The state government had then given into the demands and initiated a reservation for them and five other communities that was later turned over by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in May 2016.
"The demonstration in the capital will see participation of members of the Jat community who live in Delhi and want to express solidarity with Jats in Haryana, who have been protesting for the last one week," said Yashpal Malik, president of the All India Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti. "All these demonstrations will be peaceful, same as in Haryana so far, and will see no violence or road blocking," assured Malik. "They will culminate with a copy of our memorandum being handed over to the SDM for consideration."
The protest in Delhi is scheduled to be held outside the Sub Divisional Magistrate's office in Narela on Friday. There will be demonstrations in south Delhi on February 5, in Najafgarh on February 7, in Mundka on February 9, in Bawana on February 11, and in east Delhi on February 12. Demonstrations will also be staged in Dwarka on February 14, in Rohini on February 16, in Burari on February 18, and in Bijwasan on February 20, reported the Indian Express.
The community's demands are as such:
1. Withdrawal of cases against protestors from 2016.
2. Compensation for families of those who died during the protests in 2016.
3. Jobs for at least one member of each family that lost a member.
4. Investigation against those who are allegedly defaming the Jat community.
5. Implementation of promises made by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
They want the cases withdrawn as they believe that the protestors arrested were held responsible for "crimes committed by members of other communities, or for crimes that were never committed."
The protests in 2017 have been peaceful so far, however, Section 144 was imposed on Rohtak, which had seen one of the most violent agitations in 2016.
