Gurugram: When Hindutva outfits held a ‘Hindu mahapanchayat’ in Haryana’s Palwal district on 13 August, all five Jat pals (a local synonym for khaps) of the Mewat region — Dagar, Rawat, Sehrawat, Chauhan, and Tewatia — boycotted the event.
The mahapanchayat, organised under the banner of Sarva Hindu Samaj, was held in the wake of the communal clashes that took place in Nuh on 31 July. Notable among its resolutions was a decision to resume on 28 August the Vishva Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) Braj Mandal Yatra, which the clashes had interrupted.
Ahead of the mahapanchayat, Kulbhushan Bhardwaj, a Bajrang Dal leader from Gurugram, told mediapersons Saturday that all the pals of the Mewat region had been invited to the event.
But khaps and farmers’ bodies in the state have repeatedly condemned these gatherings and their decisions. And the response of some such bodies to the Nuh violence has been radically different from that of the Hindutva outfits.
On 9 August, a mahapanchayat of khaps and farmers’ bodies at Bass in Hisar district demanded an impartial inquiry into the Nuh violence, which spilled over into the neighbouring Gurugram district and saw six people killed and more than 88 injured.
It also sought the immediate arrest of the alleged culprits. Bittu Bajrangi, an alleged cow vigilante, has since been arrested in a related case.
Days before that, khap leaders had held meetings at Hisar and Uchana in Jind, where they described the Nuh violence as a part of a larger conspiracy to polarise voters ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking of Sunday’s event, Dharambir Singh Dagar, pradhan (head) of the Dagar Pal — the biggest of the five Jat pals in the region — said he had refused to attend when approached by the organisers.
Mandkola village in Palwal district is the headquarters of the Dagar Pal, and according to local residents, people of this gotra live in nearly 28 villages of the Mewat region.
“This was not a panchayat in the real sense of the term, but a gathering of Hindu organisations for their divisive agenda. If they really wanted to hold a panchayat, they should have called Muslims too…this is what is expected of a panchayat. But their aim was to disturb our centuries-old bhaichara (brotherhood) in the Mewat region,” Dagar said to ThePrint Monday.
He said that while everyone wanted the culprits behind the Nuh violence punished, confidence-building measures between the two communities were equally important.
Like Dagar, the heads of the Rawat, Sehrawat, Chouhan, and Tewatia pals also rejected the invitation, according to news reports. Dagar also confirmed that none of the Jat pals had participated in the mahapanchayat.
‘Not in our blood’
The reason khaps and farmers’ bodies haven’t warmed up to such mahapanchayats by Hindutva outfits in the wake of the communal clashes could be that Jats are neither too religious nor ritualistic, according to Jat leader Suresh Koth, a Samyukta Kisan Morcha member who attended the 9 August meeting at Bass.
“Hating others in the name of religion is not in our blood,” he added.
Speaking to ThePrint Monday, he said Jats in Haryana follow the teachings of their ideologue of the pre-Independence era, Sir Chhotu Ram.
Koth said Sir Chhotu Ram would tell the farming community, “Mandi aur fandi se bach kar rehna. Hamesha sukhi rahoge (Beware of cheats in grain markets and hypocrites. You will always be happy).”
“We have a centuries-old brotherhood with people from the Muslim community. Jats are found among Sikhs as well as among Muslims…How can we even think of any hatred or animosity with them? Hamara unse khoon ka rishta hai, jo dharam ke rishte se hamesha bada hota hai (We have blood relations with Muslims that are higher than that of religion),” he added.
Yoginder Gupta, a political analyst from Haryana, says that by and large, Jats are secular in nature. “The Arya Samaj movement had its impact in the Jat belt. This movement distanced people from idol worship. This is the reason that one finds a number of (Arya Samaj) gurukuls in Haryana’s Jat heartland,” Gupta told ThePrint.
In light of the mahapanchayat’s resolution to resume the yatra, ThePrint tried to reach VHP joint general secretary Surinder Jain, but he did not answer the calls.
ThePrint also contacted Nuh Deputy Commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata Tuesday to ask whether permission had been given for the resumption of the yatra on 28 August. “If I receive such a request, I will consider it on the basis of circumstances prevailing at the time,” he said.
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Mahapanchayat’s demands
Meanwhile, apart from its resolution to resume the yatra, the mahapanchayat has also sought the following, according to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Sanjay Singh, who addressed the gathering: an NIA (National Investigation Agency) investigation into the clashes, firearms for Hindus in Nuh, and compensation of Rs 1 crore for kin of those who died in the clashes and Rs 50 lakh for the injured.
It has also demanded the identification and deportation of Rohingya Muslims and the arrest of Congress MLA Mamman Khan for his comments against alleged cow vigilante Monu Manesar, also one of the accused in the clashes.
Media reports have quoted Khan as saying in the assembly in February that Manesar’s name had been linked with the killings of two Rajasthan men in a suspected cow smuggling case. He said Manesar had not yer been arrested and would be crushed like an onion if he entered Mewat.
However, farmer leader Koth, quoted above, said, “We are not against the arrest of those behind the Nuh violence…But what about those who created the circumstances for the violence?”
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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