Friday 15 / November / 2024
Bahadurgarh/New Delhi: India deployed thousands of troops in a northern state on Sunday to quell protests that have severely hit water supplies to Delhi, a city of more than 20 million people, forced factories to close and killed 10 people. Rioting and looting in Haryana by the Jats, a rural caste, is symptomatic of increasingly fierce competition for government jobs and educational openings in India, whose growing population is set to overtake China's within a decade.
The federal government has already deployed 4,000 troops and 5,000 paramilitaries in a massive show of force to restore order.
It has ordered an end to the protests by Sunday night, an official in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office said.
In Bahadurgarh, on the road west from Delhi, around 2,000 protesters were occupying a highway intersection and stopping truck traffic. Shops in the town were closed. "We are here to die," said Rajendra Ahlavat, a 59-year-old farmer and protest leader.
"We will keep going until the government bows to the pressure. There is no way we will take back our demands."
TV reports from Jhajjar, further west, showed troops fanning out on the streets against a backdrop of burning and damaged buildings - evidence of the fury of Jats who make up a quarter of Haryana's population and number more than 80 million in total.
Haryana's police chief said the death toll had risen to 10 and 150 more had been injured.
"We are trying to identify the conspirators and take action," Director General of Police Yash Pal Singal told a televised news conference.
Protesters have attacked the homes of regional ministers, torched railway stations and staged sit-ins on tracks, blocking hundreds of trains.
They sabotaged pumping equipment at a water treatment plant that provides most of Delhi's water.
"No water available now. Still no hope to get it," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a tweet.
The Delhi government ordered schools to shut on Monday and rationed water supply to residents to ensure that hospitals and emergency services have enough.
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India's biggest carmaker by sales, suspended operations at its plants in the state after the protests disrupted the supply of some components. With many road and rail links cut, the government announced that extra flights had been laid on to destinations in northwest India.
The unrest poses a threat to Modi's promise of jobs and growth for the aspirational Indians who elected him in 2014 with the largest majority in three decades.
Modi, who has previously faced criticism for ignoring unrest that does not fit with the upbeat narrative of his nationalist government, avoided reference to the protests in a visit to the state of Chattisgarh.
He unveiled a statue and spoke on efforts towards rural and urban development. Modi wants to attract foreign investment to back his 'Make in India' drive to create 100 million manufacturing jobs by 2022.
At the current rate India may only create 8 million jobs in that period, by one independent estimate.
The Jat protests echo a similar movement last year in Modi's home state of Gujarat, where the Patel community demanded a greater share of scarce government jobs and college places that are now reserved for people from lower castes. Hardik Patel, the 22-year-old leader of the Gujarat unrest, became a national sensation after drawing half a million people to one rally. The authorities cracked down on Patel, who was charged with sedition in October.
