Jat outfits, khaps disapprove of Malik’s path of protest

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 29

Majority of the Jat and khap groups are planning to fight for reservation legally and do not have any plan to launch an agitation.

Their stand is in contrast to that of the Akhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (ABJASS) led by Yashpal Malik, who has given a call for agitation from June 5.

Malik, booked on the charge of sedition in Jind, said the ABJASS would launch a peaceful agitation from June 5 and it will be only of the (ABJASS). “We have not asked others to join us.”

All main Haryana-based Jat outfits and khaps have been maintaining a distance from Malik, as they say he is from Uttar Pradesh.

“Malik has no base in Haryana. He has been trying to spoil the peace of the state by threatening to launch an agitation. We do not have any connection with him and have already announced to fight for our right legally,” said Sube Singh Sumain, spokesman for the Samasat Jat Samaj Sanghthan (SJSS).

It was formed in Jind in December 2014 after more than 100 Jat struggle committees announced to dissolve their bodies and merge under the SJSS banner.

Another Jat leader Hawa Singh Sangwan, along with others, was in Chandigarh today to meet lawyers to put their case for reservation strongly. He ruled out any possibility of an agitation.

Some senior khap leaders told The Tribune that they were planning to meet Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and urge them to put the case of Jats strongly in court.

“We are meeting leaders, but we are not going to launch any agitation. This time, we will only fight a legal battle,” said Tek Ram Kandela, convener of the Sarv Khap Panchayat (SKP), a body of Haryana khaps.

Pawandeep Banwala, president of the All-India Adarsh Jat Mahasabha, demanded that the government must form a team of Supreme Court advocates to fight Jat reservation case properly.

As a precautionary measure, Central forces have been deployed in seven districts in view of the call for protest.

The government had faced flak for failing to nip the Jat agitation in its bud in February; delayed action resulted in large-scale in the state.