Don't burn Haryana: National chess champion appeals to Jats

As situation remains tense in Haryana hit hard by the Jat quota stir, a video of former national chess champion Anuradha Beniwal making an appeal to the protesters to call off their stir has gone viral on the internet.

Beniwal, a Jat girl hailing from Rohtak, the nerve centre of the Jat agitation, in the video appealed to protesters to stop burnig their "own land, schools and homes".

"In the name of protest, you ruined everything. People have turned against you...You have set fire to your own land and burnt your own schools," she said in the video.

The 29-year-old expressed concern over "mindless violence" that has caused huge damage to life and property at various places in the state.

"You have burnt your own home, nobody else has lost anything...When there will be no schools, which good teacher will come to teach here," she said.

Beniwal also said the violence will instill fear among people coming to Haryana and hit the investment environment.

"Investors will fear to come here after seeing what you have done to it...One cannot survive on government jobs alone. How will your state develop? You will have to create an environment of development," she said.

She said Haryana has made the country proud in various fields including the army and sports and "therefore, violence has no place here".

"How can you demand something by resorting to threats and violence," she asked the protesters and appealed to them to "rise above caste considerations".

"When I started learning Chess, I wasn't asked about my caste. My coaches belonged to different communities and I played with players who were from different communities," she said.

Before this, various sports personalities, including Virender Sehwag, boxers Vijender Singh and Manoj Kumar, have made an appeal to the Jat protesters to end the stir.  

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