Mumbai: The Maharashtra cabinet Tuesday unanimously passed the Maratha Reservation Bill aimed at granting reservation to the Maratha community in educational institutions and government jobs. Cleared by the cabinet, the bill was tabled and passed during a one-day special session of the assembly called by the Maharashtra government later in the day.
This was preceded by the submission of a report by the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission recommending separate reservation for Marathas.
The Maharashtra State Socially and Educationally Backward Bill 2024, once enacted, will undergo a thorough review.
The special session was necessitated by Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil’s decision to relaunch a hunger strike, from 10 February, to demand a special legislative session to discuss the Maratha quota. What the current bill proposes is similar to the 16 percent reservation granted to Marathas under the socially and educationally backward category introduced by the state’s then BJP-Shiv Sena government in 2018.
The quota, however, was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2021.
“I want to assure the Maratha community that the government is committed towards giving reservations to you. There were certain legal hurdles that needed to be looked after. But today, I can proudly say that all hurdles are gone and I have fulfilled my promise to the community,” Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on the floor of the House.
“Unfortunately, earlier the reservation could not pass the Supreme Court test and was struck down. Therefore, this time we have reconstituted the backward classes commission and conducted a survey as per the order of the court. We have tried to fulfil the rules and regulations in every way and now we are ready to give reservation,” he added.
Jarange-Patil has been insisting that the state government grant reservation to Marathas as Kunbis, who can avail of the quota meant for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
A number of Maratha community leaders and historians claim all Marathas have their roots in the agrarian Kunbi clan. The Shinde government, acting on these claims, carried out a massive exercise to identify Marathas with documents to show they were originally Kunbis.
On Tuesday, even as the assembly unanimously passed the bill for a stand-alone Maratha quota, Jarange Patil said he would continue his agitation until the state granted members of his community reservation as Kunbis.
Chhagan Bhujbal, a minister in the Shinde government, has been opposing the proposal on behalf of Maharashtra’s OBC community which he claims to represent.
“Jarange-Patil says he needs reservation under OBC. We strongly object to it. If the government is giving only one community a full 10 percent reservation whereas in our OBC community we have 17 percent reservation for many many sub-castes, why should he now insist on getting reservation under OBC? If the Maratha community, which is huge, comes under OBCs, no one will get anything,” Bhujbal said at a press conference Tuesday.
Shinde, however, has assured the OBCs that their quota will not be stifled.
This is the third time in a decade that the state has introduced legislation aimed at granting reservation to Marathas. Ahead of assembly polls in 2014, the then Congress-NCP government led by Prithviraj Chavan had brought in an ordinance to give 16 percent reservation to the community in public schools and government jobs.
But the Congress-NCP combine failed to return to power in the state.
In 2018, the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP-Sena government passed a bill in November granting 16 percent reservation to Marathas, who were declared SEBCs by the state government. This was reduced to 12-13 percent by the Bombay High Court.
As a result, total reservation granted in educational institutions and government jobs rose to 68 percent from the earlier 52 percent, which exceeded the 50 percent cap set by the Supreme Court. The apex court, therefore, struck down the quota in 2021.
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What Maratha Reservation Bill says
The S.B. Shukre-led Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commission conducted a survey of all persons belonging to the Maratha community and the general category, collecting 1.58 crore responses. Based on the responses, the panel submitted to the government a report saying that Marathas in the state are socially and economically backward.
The report recommended that the Maratha community should be listed under Article 342 A(3) of the Constitution. It also said that reservations should be given to the community under Article 15(4), 15(5) and Article 16(4), which means the President, with the advice of the States, can notify a list of SEBCs.
The report revealed that Marathas make up about 28 percent of the state’s population — a decline from the figure stated in the 2018 bill which estimated that Marathas account for approximately 30 percent of the state’s population.
The report further suggested that the Maratha community was found lacking in terms of educational opportunities, especially in the context of higher education. According to it, 21.22 percent of Maratha families are below the poverty line, exceeding the state’s average of 17.4 percent. Additionally, 84 percent of Maratha families do not fall under the ‘progressed’ category, making them eligible for reservation as outlined in the bill.
Due to lack of educational and employment opportunities, many from the Maratha community work as daily-wage labourers, coolies, peons, sanitation workers, domestic help, etc., the report added. It also said that members of the Maratha community accounted for nearly 94 percent of all farmers who died by suicide in the state — this was a stark increase from the findings mentioned in the 2018 bill which indicated that about 24 percent of farmers in the state who died by suicide between 2013 and 2018 were Marathas.
“Giving reservation to the socially and economically backward Marathas is now becoming the need of the hour so that the future generations can be saved,” said the bill passed by the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Tuesday.
Manoj Jarange-Patil not happy
However, Manoj Jarange-Patil — the Maratha activist who has emerged as the face of quota agitation over the course of the past six months — is not happy with the government.
The 41-year-old has refused to end his hunger strike and has called for a meeting Wednesday noon to discuss a future course of action.
“The government is giving us what we don’t want. We want a reservation in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, but they are giving us a separate quota instead. If the government doesn’t discuss and implement the draft notification on the reservation for ‘sage soyare’ (kin by birth or marriage within the same caste) of Kunbi Marathas, we will decide on the course of the agitation tomorrow,” he said.
“A separate reservation outside the OBC category might pose legal challenges, as it could exceed the 50 percent reservation cap,” added Jarange-Patil.
He claimed that he had demanded that the implementation of this ‘sage soyare’ clause be made part of the notification issued by the Maharashtra government earlier this year allowing Marathas to get OBC caste certificates as Kunbis. The same draft notification stated that if a member of the Maratha community is able to provide documents to prove Kunbi roots, their ‘sage soyare’ would also be eligible for Kunbi caste certificates.
“Although I have welcomed this reservation, we need to get what we deserve. We will get what we deserve. And we will further announce the next course of action by Wednesday. But will this stay? This reservation will benefit only 100-150 people. What about the rest of us? That’s why we demand implementation of ‘sage soyare’ ,” Jarange-Patil told reporters.
The state government has received over six lakh suggestions and objections over the ‘sage soyare’ draft notification. “We will carry out scrutiny of it and then take a decision,” Shinde said Tuesday, referring to the demand for OBC certificates under the ‘sage soyare’ clause.
Shinde’s remarks do not seem to have gone down well with Jarange-Patil who said that the Marathas have “kept quiet and trusted the chief minister” for six months now and would “decide on the next course of action” within the week.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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