Jat stir: With its leaders as prime targets, BJP sees conspiracy in attacks

CHANDIGARH: Even as traders on the Delhi-Chandigarh national highway try to estimate their losses from the violent Jat stir, many feel BJP leaders and loyalists were singled out for attacks. In Rohtak, the epicentre of the agitation, protesters targeted finance minister Captain Abhimanyu’s residential and commercial properties, while sparing those of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The FM’s family had to be airlifted to safety. Although Congress accused BJP of nurturing anti-Jat sentiments, top BJP leaders are aghast at the ferocity of the attacks.

State BJP leaders toed Prime Minister Narendra Modi line that it was a bid to destabilise the BJP governments at the state and Centre. In Bhiwani-Mahedragarh’s Tosham, BJP MP Dharambir Singh’s home was ransacked. Minister Om Prakash Dhankar’s home too was ransacked in Jhajjar. Protestors targeted Punjabi and Saini community, particularly in Rohtak and Jhajjar. BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini had opposed the Jat demand for reservation openly. Khattar is also from the Punjabi community and many see attacks on business houses along with GT Road as backlash against the chief minister.

An aide of Captain Abhimanyu told ET, while the minister’s home was ransacked, “police didn’t turn up despite several calls. Whereas hundreds of security men were deputed at the residence of Congress MLA in Rohtak. The family had tobe evacuated late evening.”

Amid finger-pointing, Hooda’s political adviser Virender Singh was accused of saying over phone that the “protest was going on well in his area,” while nothing much was happening in the “Deswali belt” (INLD bastion). Singh has refuted the allegation and called it a ploy of BJP.

BJP, meanwhile, accused political parties of making it a Jat versus non-Jat chief minister issue. In the past four decades, the only non-Jat chief minister of the state who has had successful stints has been Bhajan Lal. The other non-Jat leader to have led the state was Banarsi Das Gupta. But his two tenures were short. Khattar, hence, has his task cut out as the opposition project him as an anti-Jat chief minister.

Meanwhile, the INLD led by Abhay Singh Chautala submitted memorandum to Haryana governor Kaptan Singh Solanki demanding the dismissal of state government.