The Jats have shown the way and the Nishad community in Uttar Pradesh is preparing to follow in their footsteps.
The Nishad community, which includes sub castes like Mallah, Kevat and Dhimar, has been pressing for inclusion in the scheduled caste list for several years now and though the Mulayam Singh government even issued a notification for this, the same was cancelled by the subsequent Mayawati government on technical and legal grounds.
“We have had enough because every political party is playing politics on the issue. Mayawati supports our inclusion in the SC list and so does the Congress, but both the parties have not gone beyond offering lip-service on the issue. The Jats have shown us the way and we know that arm-twisting tactics are needed to get our voices heard in the right places,” says Ram Nihor Nishad, a young emerging leader of the community.
The young generations in these communities have now asked the Akhil Bhartiya Nishad Mahasabha to finalise the agitational programme soon, failing which they will initiate the same on their own.
“We will wait for two weeks and if no decision is taken by the community leaders, we will start our own agitation. In any case, the elders are no longer claimants for benefits of reservation since they have attained a particular age but for the youth, it is a matter of our entire lives,” says Ram Nihor Nishad.
According to Mr Nishad, the youth in the community have decided to adopt the same strategy that the Jats have adopted.
“We will not resort to violence on the streets or target public property. We will simply lay siege to railway stations or airports and paralyse VIP movement in the state so that the state government also swings into action and mounts pressure on the centre,” he says. Mr Nishad is unwilling to disclose the exact modus operandi but says his agitation will cause inconvenience to VIP, mainly politicians.
“It is the politicians who will feel the heat,” he said.