Mallika Sherawat on the Jat agitation and the possible solutions to the problem
Upala KBR (DNA; February 25, 2016)
Mallika Sherawat belongs to a Jat family. She is from Moth, a village in Haryana’s Hissar district. The actress’s family has been affected by ongoing violent protests by Jats across Haryana, who are demanding reservation in government jobs and educational institutions under the OBC category. The actress had appealed to the Jat community on Twitter to maintain peace and practise non-violence on the Jat reservation issue in Haryana.
She doesn’t agree with the protesters demands for reservations. She says, “I think you either have reservations for every community or not at all. To give reservations to Jats only is giving one community privilege over others. There should be one rule for everybody. As a community, they are asking for reservations because they feel it’s needed. But why only Jats? If Jats have needs, then every other community’s needs should be taken care of. Why should one get left behind? Everybody should be treated equally.”
The actress feels that violent protests can never bear solution to any problem. “I believe in peace and not violent protests. I think the the biggest measure should be to fix our dysfunctional justice system in India, where it takes 18-20 years for someone to get justice. I believe that justice delayed is justice denied. People protest when they are just pushed into a corner but instead if there’s an effort to redress all their grievances, they won’t take these extreme measures. I strongly feel that, no matter what issue any citizen of India has, it is the responsibility of the government to listen to them, but without threatening them. We are a democracy after all.”
Always one to speak up about women’s rights, she says it’s a universal problem, this time around. “Everybody is being affected. I spoke to my family in Haryana and they sounded disturbed. They have suffered huge loss of property. Our shops and a movie theatre have been burned down. They are trying to cope with this huge loss and move on. It’s a faulty system.”