Quota: Confusion, divergence within Maratha community

Leaders from the Maratha community who have been heading the reservation agitation for the past two years seem to have different views on the government’s announcement.

Members of the Muslim community tried to block the old Pune-Mumbai Highway near Bopodi on Sunday morning demanding reservation in education and government jobs. (Rajesh Stephen)

EVEN as the state government is set to table the report of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission on Maratha reservation before the state legislature on Monday, the Maratha community seems to be confused about whether to seek reservation in the existing OBC quota or demand a separate 16 per cent reservation. This, despite Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announcing on Sunday that the community will be given quota through the Socially and Educationally Backward (SEBC) category.

According to sources, the government will table the report before the state legislature for discussion and is also likely to table the draft of the reservation law. “There is a possibility that both the report as well as the draft reservation law will be tabled on Monday itself as the government wants a discussion on them simultaneously so that by the time the session ends, the draft law can become an Act,” said a government official.

On Thursday, N G Gaikwad, the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commissioner, had submitted a report to the state government and Fadnavis had said the Maratha community can organise celebrations on December 1, indicating that the commission had given a favourable report regarding reservation.

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While the House is slated to take up the issue, leaders from the Maratha community who have been heading the reservation agitation for the past two years seem to have different views on the government’s announcement.

Vinod Patil, a Maratha leader and a petitioner in the case, welcomed the CM’s announcement. “We welcome the decision. We believe that Maratha community should get 16 per cent reservation through a separate category. Therefore, the state government’s announcement is in line with our expectations,” said Patil of the Maratha Kranti Morcha that has been spearheading the reservation agitation for the past two years. The Morcha organised over 50 protest events across the state demanding reservation for the community.

Citing the case of Tamil Nadu, Patil said: “In Tamil Nadu, there is reservation up to 69 per cent. Although the reservation case is pending in the Supreme Court, the Tamil Nadu government has already started implementing it and people are availing of it. Similarly, the Maharashtra government should increase the quota from the existing 52 per cent to 68 per cent which will still be one per cent less than Tamil Nadu,” he said. Patil said the Maharashtra government has already conferred with the experts and lawyers in Tamil Nadu about the validity of 69 per cent quota. “Therefore, even if it is challenged in the Supreme Court, like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra should be able to defend it,” he said.

However, Shantaram Kunjir, another Maratha community leader, criticised the move. “This is another attempt to deny reservation to the Maratha community. If the government is talking about creating a separate head, then it seems this issue will come to the purview of the central government. If it goes to central government, it won’t happen before the elections as the model code of conduct will come into force after couple of months. Which clearly means, the Maratha reservation is sought to being pushed on the back burner,” he said.

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Differing with Patil’s views, Kunjir said the Maratha community should get reservation only through the OBC quota. “The government should increase the OBC quota to 48 per cent by adding 16 per cent reservation for the Marathas,” he said.

Stating that there was confusion in the Maratha community, Patil said: “We want the government to take an appropriate decision. We all are raising one point, the reservation should stand judicial scrutiny.”

Kunjir said only if the OBC quota is increased, it will stand the judicial scrutiny. “Otherwise like it happened during the Congress-NCP rule, the move of giving separate 16 per cent reservation will not stand judicial scrutiny,” he said.

Another Maratha leader, Rajendra Kondhare, however, said the state legislature should discuss the issue threadbare and then come to a united conclusion as to what option should be best adopted.

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“They should discuss among themselves and ask the government to get views from a constitutional expert as well so as to take a final decision in this regard. Therefore, I would not like to comment whether the Maratha reservation should be through OBC quota or SEBC category,” he said.

Stating that the Maratha community was determined to hold a gherao of the state legislature on November 26, Kunjir said the government is only talking about reservation but has done virtually nothing on the community’s other demands.

“We have been demanding that the government should give Rs 10 lakh to those innocent youths who died during the agitations and false cases slapped against those during the agitations be withdrawn. Besides, the government has also done nothing except for coming up with various resolutions for the benefit of the Maratha community. Announcements are made, but are not implemented,” he said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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