Our politics is regressing. While they market the Goods and Services Tax as one-country, one-tax, increasingly State governments are bent on creating hermetically sealed jurisdictions for job markets. The latest to play the sons-of-the-soil card is Haryana. It seeks to reserve 75 percent jobs for locals in private companies employing more than ten people. The only other rider is that the salary for reserved jobs should be below Rs. 50,000. Given that Haryana has emerged as the largest automotive hub in the country, employing tens of thousands from all over the country in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt, why would it risk killing the goose that lays the golden egg? Haryana nets a whopping amount in tax revenues from Gurgaon-Manesar alone which is the envy of neighbouring Punjab. It may be that Chief Minister M L Khattar is under pressure from the coalition partner, Jannayak Janta Party of Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, but such a retrograde step is bound to be a disincentive in the further industrialisation of the State. As a cyber and automotive hub, Haryana has made huge strides. Let it not jeopardise growth for narrow casteist considerations. The Jat lobby in the State, instead, should ensure that its youths acquire modern education and are thus able to seek employment on merit. A proud community, Jats should be the last to seek the crutches of reservations.
