Mumbai: Five days before Maratha leader Manoj Jarange-Patil’s deadline to the Maharashtra government to grant Maratha quota lapses, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde Tuesday promised to convene a special session of the legislature in February to discuss how best to grant reservation for the entire Maratha community.
Jarange-Patil is, however, unimpressed with the announcement and said his agitation will continue as planned if the state government doesn’t make good on its promise of granting reservation to the entire community in government jobs and education.
Speaking on the floor of the Maharashtra assembly Tuesday, Shinde reiterated his government’s promise of reservation to Marathas.
“The backward commission will submit its report to us within a month. Then we will consider it and then a special session of the legislature will be convened in February to grant reservation to the Maratha community,” Shinde said at the Winter Session of the assembly in Nagpur. “I give my assurance that no injustice will be done to any of the other communities while granting quota to the Marathas.”
The Maharashtra CM also voiced concerns about people dying by suicide over the quota issue, calling these instances “unfortunate”.
“Nobody should take any political advantage of the situation. But in the past few days, differences between different communities have come to the fore. This doesn’t suit the progressive image of Maharashtra. I appeal to everyone that, through dialogue, we will find a solution. But till then, everyone should maintain calm and peace. As a chief minister, and for the government, all castes are the same,” he said.
He was referring to protests from the state’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) against the state government’s earlier decision to give Marathas OBC certificates.
But Jarange-Patil, whose indefinite hunger strike in August spurred the last round of Maratha protests, remained firm on his 24 December deadline.
“The CM’s reply is positive but we don’t agree with the new deadline of February. We had given you the deadline of 24 December and according to what we’d decided, you should give us the reservation (Kunbi certificates to Marathas) by 24 December. Or we begin our protests again,” Jarange-Patil told the media from his village Antarwali Sarathi.
Marathas form 33 percent of the state’s population and have been sporadically protesting for reservation in jobs and educational institutions. The latest round of protests comes just ahead of next year’s parliamentary and Maharashtra assembly elections and has put immense pressure on the Shinde government to deliver.
The issue of granting a separate quota for the Maratha community is in the Supreme Court. The apex court had, in 2021, declared the Maharashtra government’s quota for the Maratha community unconstitutional. The state government filed a review petition and then a curative petition.
For now, the Shinde government has decided to issue Kunbi caste certificates to eligible members of the Maratha community, paving the way for these persons to get reservation as OBC. Kunbis are listed as OBCs in the state and have been among those protesting against the state government’s move to grant OBC certificates to Marathas.
Shinde’s speech in the assembly comes a day after a panel under Justice Sandeep Shinde (retired), which is examining how to grant Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas, submitted its 450-page report.
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‘Scholarships, employment for Maratha youth’
Speaking in the assembly, Shinde also listed out the various benefits that his government gave to the Marathas. He claimed that the state government had released Rs 300 crore for the Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Research Training and Human Development Institute (SARTHI) and that his government was working towards giving employment to the Maratha youth.
Besides this, the state government had earmarked Rs 21 crore towards foreign scholarships, he told the House.
Speaking about granting Kunbi certificates to Marathas, the CM said it would be done only after thorough verification, so “fake certificates are not granted”.
A curative petition has also been filed before the Supreme Court, he said.
“This is a ray of hope. For it to get passed within the framework of law, empirical data collection has to be done and the backward commission will submit the report within a month,” he said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)