Mumbai: Amid a fresh round of protests by the Maratha community pressing for a quota in government jobs and educational institutions, MLAs and MPs of the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP combine are facing the heat, with the agitation turning violent in parts of Maharashtra.
On Monday, agitators pelted stones at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Prakash Solanke in Majalgaon in Beed district, besides torching some of his vehicles parked there. The MLA from Majalgaon, Solanke is part of the NCP faction led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar. Around the same time Solanke’s residence was attacked in Beed, some persons also reportedly attacked the Majalgaon municipal council building.
A little over 300 km from Majalgaon, unidentified individuals attacked the office of Prashant Bamb, the BJP MLA from Gangapur, in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district.
Protestors also pelted stones at Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses over the last 48 hours, prompting the body to suspend services on some routes, an MSRTC official told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Further, the representatives of some villages have announced that they won’t let politicians enter their village. Against this backdrop, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s son and Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, and state minister Dada Bhuse are said to have cancelled a scheduled visit to Nashik district, sources from the Shinde-led Sena told ThePrint.
CM Shinde, meanwhile, tried to soothe protestors by forming an advisory board of three retired judges to oversee the state’s preparedness in presenting its case for a Maratha quota in the Supreme Court. The apex court had in 2021 struck down Maharashtra’s Maratha quota law. CM Shinde, who belongs to the Maratha community, also appealed to protestors not to engage in violence or create a law and order situation.
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Monday, Shinde said the Maratha community had organised 58 morchas “in a very disciplined manner” the last time they raised the demand for Maratha reservation.
“Despite there being morchas of lakhs of people, nowhere was law and order compromised. But unfortunately, at some places today, though the Maratha community is disciplined and peaceful, some people are taking law into their own hands. The Maratha community should look at this seriously. This taint leads to a question of law and order,” he said.
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‘Agitation has taken an emotional turn’
Public representatives from the three ruling parties in Maharashtra — the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — have been feeling the pressure of the Maratha quota stir for some time now.
On Sunday, Hemant Patil, an MP of the Shinde-led Sena from Nanded district in Marathwada, offered to resign in solidarity with the Maratha community. And on Monday, BJP MLA from Georai Laxman Pawar and Shinde-led Sena MP Hemant Godse also reportedly sent letters to the Speaker, offering to resign from the assembly.
“It is a non-political agitation, but what is happening now is a little extreme. We are not in a position to say or do anything at all, considering the matter is in court. We are not even able to approach the electorate and put the government’s point of view before them or reiterate our commitment to the quota. The agitation has taken an emotional turn,” said a senior leader of the Shinde-led Sena who did not want to be named.
Leaders from the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) too have picked up on the sentiment. A delegation of the MVA comprising leaders from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Sharad-Pawar-led NCP and the Congress, met Governor Ramesh Bais Monday to request him to convene a special session of the assembly to deliberate on the demand for a Maratha quota and the grievances of other communities.
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Monday, Supriya Sule, the MP from Sharad Pawar-led NCP, accused the Shinde government of “tricking” the Maratha community by forming a committee. “The government did not act despite the Maratha community giving it 40 days to act after calling off the agitation last month,” she said.
The MP from Baramati also demanded the resignation of Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis — who also holds the home portfolio. “An MLA’s house is burnt, a government building is burnt, what is happening? Is there any law and order left in Maharashtra,” she asked.
Maratha quota agitation so far
The Maratha community — represented by both powerful sugar barons and landlords as well as distressed farmers and unemployed youth — accounts for an estimated 32 percent of Maharashtra’s total population. Members of the community have been demanding reservation in state-run colleges and government jobs since the 1980s.
On its part, the state government granted the Marathas this quota on two occasions: in 2014 when a Congress-NCP coalition was in power, and again in 2018 during the tenure of the BJP-Sena alliance. However, both times, the quota could not stand judicial scrutiny.
Since 2016, there have been multiple waves of protests by members of the Maratha community to demand a quota. These were supported by Maratha leaders across party lines, regardless of which party was in power.
Initially, the protests were lauded for being peaceful and silent.
However, in 2018, they turned violent with agitators pelting stones and torching vehicles — similar to how the agitation seems to be playing out now.
Political analysts and members of the community had then said that the protests turned violent since they went beyond the control of the Maratha Kranti Morcha — an umbrella outfit of outfits advocating for Maratha reservation — and took the form of an anti-chief minister agitation, with then CM Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP being a Brahmin.
Fadnavis, however, earned the community’s appreciation by fast-tracking the work of a commission appointed to assess the social and economic backwardness of the Maratha community, and ultimately getting a law passed in the state legislature to grant reservation to the community in November 2018. The law withstood the Bombay High Court’s scrutiny but the Supreme Court struck it down three years later as “unconstitutional”.
This fresh round of protests by the Marathas too began peacefully with community activist Manoj Jarange Patil sitting on an indefinite fast in August this year. The police, however, lathi-charged the protestors and tried to forcibly take the activist to the hospital.
This is when CM Shinde personally intervened, went to the site of the agitation and convinced Jarange Patil to end his indefinite fast, promising to restore the Maratha community’s quota. Patil then gave the government a deadline of 24 October to act on the Maratha community’s demands. Once the deadline lapsed, Patil resumed his indefinite fast.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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