Ready to fight again if govt seeks review: Maratha leaders after SC ruling on SC/ST Act

Coordinator of the Maratha Kranti Morcha said if the Congress or other political parties, and leaders "with an eye on Dalit votes, wanted to antagonise the Maratha community, they could do so at their own risk."

The mook morchas, or silent marches, held across the state in 2016 and 2017, were attended by lakhs of Marathas. (Express File Photo)

Leaders of the Maratha community have warned that they will be forced to relaunch their agitation — more aggressively this time — if the central government refused to accept the Supreme Court’s decision to dilute stringent provisions under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and went for a review. The Congress, as well as Dalit leaders in the NDA, have stressed the need for a review petition against the Supreme Court ruling. “… We welcome the ruling, but if the government goes for a review petition before the Supreme Court, we will have to hit the streets again, and this time more aggressively,” said Shantaram Kunjir, state coordinator of the Maratha Kranti Morcha.

The Morcha had undertaken 36 mook morchas, or silent marches, in Maharashtra in 2016 and 2017 over several demands, including watering down of stringent provisions, like denial of bail for those charged under the Act. The morchas were attended by lakhs of Marathas. Kunjir said the ruling, from the highest court of the land, should be accepted by everyone. “We had never demanded that the Atrocities Act be repealed. We have only been demanding that a proper investigation should be conducted before an FIR is registered and there should be a provision for bail,” he said.

Kunjir said if the Congress or other political parties, and leaders “with an eye on Dalit votes, wanted to antagonise the Maratha community, they could do so at their own risk.”

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“The Maratha community forms 32 per cent of the total population of Maharashtra. The Congress has been ousted from power because of the caste politics it played. If it again resorts to the same technique, the Maratha community will give it a befitting reply,” he said.

Pravin Gaikwad, another key leader of the Maratha Kranti Morcha, said the Act, in its current form, had “wrecked the lives of several individuals as false cases were imposed on them”. “For instance, if a government employee was charged under the Atrocities Act, he was arrested and denied bail for three or six months. Once a government employee is charged with a crime, even if he is acquitted later, his life is as good as ruined. From his promotion to bank loan, everything is affected,” he said. Gaikwad said the conviction rate under the Act was low, which, he claimed, reflected that “false cases were falling apart”. “Filing of false cases has become the order of the day. Some to blackmail, some to avenge a quarrel,” he said.

He said if the government decided to file a review petition, “one of the options before us is to fight it out in court…”. “The political parties should not focus on justice for only one group, to secure votes. They should seek justice for all communities, only then will they rise in the eyes of the voters and citizens,” said Gaikwad. He said it was a fact that injustice had been committed against SC/ST community members, which necessitated such an Act. “But the Act has been gravely misused, as has been expounded by the Supreme Court. We have never demanded that the Act be repealed. We have only demanded that a proper investigation should be conducted before a person is charged under the Act. Also, he or she should have the right to bail, which is not the case currently,” he said.

Rajendra Kondare, general secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Maratha Mahasangh, said, “It seems that we will have to gear up for another battle. If the government seeks a review of the Supreme Court ruling, we will also fight it out in the court. But a decision on this will be taken at a meeting on Sunday”.

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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