Mumbai: Even after the Maharashtra government decided to give Kunbi Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates to Marathwada Marathas, the deadlock over the issue of Maratha reservation continues in the state.
In fact, the government’s apparent balancing act ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and state assembly elections has irked all the stakeholders — OBCs have started protesting against the decision, angry Marathas are attacking their leaders, while the Dhangar community is also demanding quota on the same basis.
On 6 September, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced the decision to issue Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas from the Marathwada region who possess revenue or education documents from the Nizam era, recognising them as Kunbis.
During the Nizam era, before Marathwada joined the state officially, Marathas were considered Kunbis and were in the OBC category. But when the region joined Maharashtra, they lost the OBC status.
“The state government wants to give the Maratha community a reservation that will be foolproof and will pass the legal test…we are not taking any decision in haste. While doing so, we will make sure that the other communities are not affected,” Shinde said to the media Tuesday while on a tour of Jalgaon.
However, political analyst Abhay Deshpande told ThePrint that a long term solution to this issue can’t be found without doing away with the 50 percent reservation cap.
“Unless the 50% reservation cap is removed, the issue of reservation will not be solved. And if Marathas are included in OBCs, issues such as political reservation also crop up. Marathas are demanding reservation only in jobs and education, and not anywhere else.”
“The ball is in the court of the SC and the Government of India. This issue will dominate ahead of the LS and assembly elections next year. The ruling parties will have to convince Marathas and OBCs that it is a legal battle while the Opposition will try to reap the benefits and take on the ruling Mahayuti (of BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party),” said political analyst Sanjay Jog.
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Marathas & OBCs
According to the 2011 census, Marathas constitute nearly 33 percent of the state population that sends 48 Lok Sabha representatives to Parliament, second only to Uttar Pradesh.
The OBC community, which forms 52 percent of the population in Maharashtra, has been important to the BJP since the 1980s, when the party actively started promoting leaders such as Gopinath Munde, Eknath Khadse and capitalise on the political disillusionment that OBCs felt with the Maratha-centric Congress.
The BJP in Maharashtra was known as a party of the Shethji-Bhatji (Baniya-Brahmin). It was leaders such as Munde, Anna Dange, Mahadev Shivankar, and N.S. Pharande who brought the OBC community to the BJP. Khadse has joined the NCP since.
The BJP then focussed on MA-DHA-V (an acronym for Mali, Dhangar, Vanjari sub caste of OBCs) to reach out to OBCs.
Ahead of the elections, the BJP has restarted its OBC outreach. “BJP’s DNA is OBC. The BJP would ensure that various communities under the OBC bloc are developed educationally, culturally, and politically. We will visit each district of the state to understand the problems of OBCs,” said BJP OBC Morcha leader Sanjay Gathe said to news agency PTI.
Currently, the state has 52 percent reservation based on caste. This comprises 19 percent for OBCs, 13 percent for Scheduled Castes, 8 percent for Scheduled Tribes, 8 percent for NTs (nomadic tribes) and 2 percent each for special backward class and denotified class, according to the state reservation act of 2001. There is another 10 percent quota for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS).
“Their (the government’s) immediate concern was to convince Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil to take back his protest. But while doing so, they are making sure that they mention that the OBC reservation won’t be affected,” said Deshpande, quoted earlier.
While Jarange-Patil has ended his hunger strike, protests have continued in the state.
Maratha leaders attacked
Meanwhile, angry protesters are targeting prominent Maratha leaders, to the extent that the latter are wary of answering phone calls from the angry community, Cabinet Minister Gulabrao Patil told ThePrint.
Last week, Congress leader Ashok Chavan, who was also the head of the Maratha reservation committee in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government, was heckled by Maratha youths in his hometown Nanded for not being able to secure reservations for the community. They even showed him black flags, according to media reports.
Minister Patil was also abused by a Maratha youth in a telephonic conversation last week. “Such things will not solve anything. Only a dialogue will solve this problem,” he said to ThePrint.
Other communities up in arms
Cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal, also one of the prominent OBC faces in the government, said that Marathas will need to produce proof to get Kunbi certificates. “Since Kunbi is with the OBC community, if Marathas are able to give the proof, they will get the certificate which will make them OBC but if not, then how will they stand in the court of law.”
Across the state, sub-castes (or communities) such as Kunbis — very much a part of the OBCs — have started protesting against the government decision of bringing Marathwada Marathas under the umbrella, fearing their quota might be impacted.
The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in state assembly, Vijay Wadettiwar, told the media Tuesday, “The cooperative sector is strongly supported by Marathas. But still, there are poor, jobless Marathas (as well). We OBCs have a higher population and the reservation is lower than that of Marathas. But we are fine (with that) if Marathas are given a separate reservation or through the EWS, but not if it’s from the OBC quota.”
Likewise, Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh president Baban Tayawade told ThePrint, “OBCs and Kunbis oppose the government decision to include Marathas in the OBC category. We have already started our protests against this.”
He said if their demand (of revoking the decision) was not heard, they will hold hunger strikes and human chain protests across the state.
“The reservation that we got is constitutional and we had to fight hard for nearly four decades to get it. We even submitted the proof of our backwardness. But today, Marathas are demanding full reservation within (OBC category), and that is not acceptable,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Dhangar community has also revived its long-pending demand for reservation under the ST category.
Last Friday, while demanding quota for the Dhangar community, a man poured turmeric powder over Cabinet minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil’s head in Solapur. He was later detained. This Tuesday in Akola, the Dhangar community also held a protest against Vikhe-Patil.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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