In Haryana, Jats are a politically influential community and constitute nearly 29 per cent of the population. Jats originally belonged to farming communities and now mostly live in Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan and UP. Their population in total is about 82.5 million. Over the years, they have become politically active in certain states, especially in Haryana and Punjab.

History of Jat Agitations :

• The Jats discontent boiled over after the 1991 Gurnam Singh Commission report which included Jats in the Backward Classes category along with seven other groups, and after the Bhajan Lal government withdrew the notification that had been issued for inclusion. Two more Backward Classes Commissions set up in the state excluded the group – in 1995 and 2011. Reservation for Jats was one of the poll promises made by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who came to power in 2004; he subsequently wrote several letters to the Union government seeking their inclusion of Jats. After an agitation, in April 2011, the government set up the K C Gupta Commission to go into the question once again. In 2012, the commission recommended the inclusion of Jats and four other castes, Jat Sikhs, Ror, Tyagi and Bishnoi, in the category Special Backward Classes (SBC). The Hooda government accepted the report and 10% quota was granted, but this was later set aside by the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court on Jat Qouta :

• The Supreme Court said “social backwardness” key to determine backwardness - caste alone cannot be reason to grant reservation.
• If Haryana were to add a jat quota to the existing OBC (27%) +scheduled castes & scheduled tribes (22.5%), it would defy Supreme Court cap of 50% reservations.

Why Jats demand for inclusion in OBC Caste :

• The Jats are demanding Other Backward Classes (OBC) status for the community in the central list of castes eligible for reservations. Currently, Jats enjoy reservations in four states, but are asking this to be extended to the rest of the country. This will aid the community getting into central government jobs and institutions under the category.

Causes behind Jats Agitations :

• Political reasons: An unpopular and imposed leadership on top of state government which has proved to be highly incompetent in handling the crisis. Even their appeal for peace was as mechanical as a crank-shaft.
• Economic reasons: Dying green revolution and fragmentation of land has made agriculture unviable which was mainstay of jat community. Govt. jobs were already rare and have further decreased due current state govt. policy of lean govt. machinary.
• Social reasons: Ghettoization of communities in cities. Different communities have failed to intermingle with each other. Separation of living spaces increases distrust and antagonism
• Demographic reasons: Rising no. of young population. Rohtak is(was) an educational hub. But it is just producing an army of educated unemployed. No prospect of job in public or private sector was already frustrating the youth. Worst sex- ratio of Haryana means no marital prospect for unemployed. This built up frustration was released in the form of demand for reservation. A hopeless person can be very dangerous. He can’t be threatened or intimidated for he has nothing to lose. And this hopeless youth has been at forefront in this agitation, not fearing police, CRPF or even army.
• Administrative reasons: Inability of administration to analyse the situation in time and take corrective steps.

Haryana Government's stance :

• The Haryana state government extended an olive branch to Jats by agreeing to double the existing 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for economically backward persons (EBPs) in the general caste category, including Jats, Jat Sikhs, Rors, Tyagis and Bishnois.
• It was also decided to enhance the annual income ceiling from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh to accommodate more people under the EBP quota.
• The Jats have trashed government offer to include those with annual income of less than Rs 6 lakh under an Economically Backward Persons (EBP) category with a 20% quota, to be shared with four other castes: Tyagis, Rors, Bishnois and Jat Sikhs as they want to be included in OBC category only.

Jats stand in Haryana’s political hierarchy :

• Since being carved out of Punjab in 1966, Haryana state has had 10 chief ministers, and seven have been Jats. Jats comprise 27% of the electorate, and are the state’s predominant caste group, who dominate a third of the 90 Assembly constituencies in the state.
• The leaders of the two main opposition political parties — Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress and Abhay Singh Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal — are Jats. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar represents the Punjabi community, and belongs to the Khattar caste.
• The Jat agitation is centred on Rohtak, Jhajjar and Bhiwani — the three districts that, along with Panipat, Sonipat and Hisar, are known as the state’s Jat belt.
• The governments are wary to accede to the demand since the decision may alienate those already in the OBC list. The existing OBC castes, no less politically influential, fear that the dominant castes may corner the quotas if included in the list since the latter are richer and better educated. Moreover, the judiciary will probably not allow quotas to exceed the 49 per cent limit imposed by the Supreme Court on reservation.

What can be done :

• Investing in infrastructure, promoting entrepreneurship and efficient financial mediation while maintaining macroeconomic stability in a globalising world is the way to create jobs.
• Addressing both political and developmental issues is the long-term solution to the growing queue of communities seeking statutory reservation in jobs and higher education.

Conclusion :

The issue of reservation in India has been one of the critical and became political tool in the hands of politicians. This issue and agitations are result of failure from political and developmental aspects, which needs to be addressed immediately. For that government should invest on infrastructure, promote entrepreneurship will create more jobs.The reservation system needs to be revamped and new system shoud be based on economic factors rather than on which caste one is born into.Haryana needs more auto hubs like Manesar, more education cities like Sonipat and more Gurgaons so that the pool of 82 per cent jobs keeps expanding.If Jats or any other community feel that they have legitimate demand to be included in the other backward classes (OBC) category, press for it by all means but in a peacefull manner. They must realise that other than their share, if they get it, in reserved jobs, they will also need many jobs in the unreserved category if majority of them have aspirations to be meaningfully employed. That is only possible with the help of Gurgaons and Manesars.