The contentious issue of Maratha reservations has once again taken the central stage in Maharashtra politics as Lok Sabha and Assembly elections draw near.
The long-going Maratha reservation demands in the state of Maharashtra took a violent turn on Tuesday (31st October) after the protesters demanding reservation in government jobs and educational institutions stirred violence in the city of Pune, Maharashtra. They raised the slogans of ‘Ek Maratha, Lakh Maratha’ and caused damage to the vehicles and public properties in the city. The protesters also blocked the Pune-Bangalore highway, the video of which has been going viral over the internet.
#Pune #MarathaReservation
— Mayuresh Ganapatye (@mayuganapatye) October 31, 2023
Visual from #Pune #Bangalore highway, Maratha protestors have stalled the traffic movement demanding reservation for their community. pic.twitter.com/UB3PeBmYxT
This is a day after the violent protesters burned the houses of 2 MLAs in Beed district. Residential properties of 2 NCP MLAs, Prakash Solanke (Ajit Pawar faction) and Sandeep Kshirsagar (Sharad Pawar faction) were set ablaze by the violent protesters in Maharashtra’s Beed.
The agitators also vandalised public properties after which prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code Of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) were imposed in the area. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Prakash Solanke commented on the matter on Monday (30th October) and said that he and his family members were inside the house when the agitators burned his property.
The Police have arrested 49 people from Beed in connection with engaging in the violence. Section 144 has also been imposed in the city.
NCP(Ajit) MLA Prakash Solanke’s house burned by Maratha Reservation protesters.
— News Arena India (@NewsArenaIndia) October 30, 2023
Solanke & his family members were in the house when incident took place. pic.twitter.com/UhhXJ7dMML
“I was inside. Fortunately, none of my family members or staff were injured. We are all safe, but there is a huge loss of property due to the fire,” he was quoted as saying. On the other hand, the protesters also set ablaze the home of MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar (Sharad Pawar faction) in Beed. Several vehicles parked below his bungalow were also set on fire.
The incident is said to have happened in the afternoon on 30th October. MLA Kshirsagar’s house was destroyed after NCP MLA Solanke’s home was set on fire. However, property belonging to MLA Solanke was destroyed after his previous comments against the Maratha reservation and quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil. Offices of former NCP MLA and minister Jaydutt Kshirsagar were also set on fire.
#WATCH | Maharashtra | Maratha reservation agitators set fire to the NCP office in Beed City earlier this evening. Later they also set residences of NCP MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar and state's former minister Jay Kshirsagar on fire. Details awaited. pic.twitter.com/TcXSTsyuWm
— ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2023
The Maratha reservation issue was allegedly referred to as a kid’s game by the NCP MLA Solanke. He had also ‘ridiculed’ Patil by saying, “A person, who has not even contested a gram panchayat election, has become a smart person today.” This happened to irk the reservation protesters who turned violent on Monday and used fire as a brutal weapon.
Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil has been on fast for the past several days and has refused to conduct talks with the government. He has turned down requests by the government for talks. However, after the incident that happened in Beed yesterday, he said that he would discontinue the fast if the violence continued. While talking to the media, he also said that the protests were taking a different turn leading to violence.
Meanwhile, as elections draw closer, the reservation issue in the state seems to have been fanned up. State leaders and opposition are racing to see Manoj Jarange Patil in person even though there is a high-level investigation underway to determine who is at fault for the recent wave of aggressiveness that resulted in violence in the Beed and Jalna districts. The opposition is pressuring the CM Shinde-led government to resolve the long-going issue of the Maratha reservation.
"आज एक विधायक का घर जलाया जाता है, गृह मंत्रालय क्या कर रहा है और गृह मंत्री क्या कर रहे हैं?"
— News24 (@news24tvchannel) October 30, 2023
◆ NCP विधायक प्रकाश सोलंके के बीड आवास पर हुए हमले पर NCP(शरद पवार गुट) सांसद सुप्रिया सुले ने कहा#PrakashSolanke #MarathaReservation #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/wBXxE0J9DL
Manoj Jarange Patil has been on hunger strike since Friday (27th October) and is demanding that the government consider all the Marathas as Kunbis, which is the sub-caste of Marathas so that they can be entitled to reservation benefits available for people from Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
In September, similar violence was reported in the Jalna district of Maharashtra where the protesters targeted government buses and private vehicles leaving 40 police personnel and some civilians injured. The violence happened after Manoj Jarange Patil initiated a hunger strike in Jalna’s Antarwali Sarathi village. On August 29, Patil started a hunger strike in Antarwali Sarati village to demand an OBC quota for Marathas. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde gave him assurances, and on September 14, the strike was called off.
As per the official, the trouble began on the third day of the said strike when the police attempted to shift Patil to a hospital on doctors’ advice. According to authorities, some people targeted private cars and state transportation buses. The police then dispersed the crowd in Antarwali Sarathi village, which is around 75 kilometers from Sambhaji Nagar, on the Dhule-Solapur road by using a baton charge and firing tear gas shells.
Up to 40 police officers suffered injuries in the incident, including Jalna Superintendent of Police (SP) Tushar Doshi. More than 360 persons were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, according to the police, and 16 of them were identified as having actively contributed to the violence.
Notably, in May 2021, the Supreme Court overturned the state government’s reservation of jobs and education for the Maratha community, citing, among other things, the 50% cap on total reservations. Here is all the basic history, the current scenario, and all that you need to know about the Maratha reservation issue.
Maratha: The caste of warriors in Maharashtra
The Marathas, a caste that includes, among others, landlords and peasants, make up approximately 33 percent of the state’s population. Although most Marathas speak Marathi, not everyone who speaks Marathi is a member of the Maratha community.
Almost one-third of the state’s population is members of this politically powerful community. They have a reputation for being a ‘warrior’ caste with enormous land holdings. Twelve of the twenty chief ministers of Maharashtra state since its creation in 1960 including the current CM Eknath Shinde have appeared from the Maratha community.
Even though the middle-class and lower-middle-class Marathas have become less prosperous over time due to land partition and agricultural issues, the community continues to contribute significantly to the rural economy.
The history of protests for Maratha reservation
There has been a decades-long push for Maratha reservations. The latest push for OBC inclusion, however, appears to be a complicated one. The first protest seeking reservation for the Maratha community was led by Annasaheb Patil, the leader of the Mathadi Labour Union over 32 years ago. Since 1981, this reservation issue has sparked widespread demonstrations and has remained a crucial component of state politics.
Unfortunately, Maharashtra, a state where Marathas have historically held political sway, has been unable to resolve this complex issue for the past several decades.
Prior to the 2014 Assembly elections, the state government, led by Prithviraj Chavan at the time, introduced an ordinance granting Marathas a 16 percent reservation in government employment and education. It was based on the suggestions made by the Narayan Rane Committee at that moment in time.
The Congress-NCP association, which ruled the state from 1999 to 2014, was overthrown in 2014, and Devendra Fadnavis’s government (BJP-Shiv Sena partnership) took over. August 2016, barely two years later, the state was hit hard by the Kopardi rape and murder of a fifteen-year-old girl who belonged to the Maratha community. The discontent among Marathas then resulted in organized demonstrations throughout the state, spearheaded by the Sakal Maratha Samaj and Maratha Kranti Morcha.
However, in 2017–18, the protests turned violent. After that, the Fadnavis government took decisive action to address the complex problem. In November 2018, the government approved Marathas’ reservation under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class Act, an unusual provision based on the conclusions of the Backward Class Commission led by M G Gaikwad. By this, the BJP gained an electoral advantage over the then-rival Congress-NCP on account of the reservation.
In an effort to strengthen its support among Marathas, the BJP also looked into reservation issues while MVA was in power (2019–2022). It paid off, as the BJP won the most votes in the local body elections. But opponents using Maratha quota politics are once again targeting Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who oversees the critically important home department today.
Legalities revolving around the Maratha reservation
Under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018, the Bombay High Court affirmed in June 2019 the Maratha quota’s constitutional validity. While the High Court held that the state’s sixteen percent quota was not “justifiable,” it was lowered to thirteen percent in government employment and twelve percent in education, in accordance with the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission’s recommendation.
On the other hand, the HC stated that the reservation cap shouldn’t go above 50%. This restriction, however, may be exceeded in extreme and exceptional circumstances. It stated that this would depend on the availability of quantitative, current data demonstrating backwardness and inadequate representation, without compromising administrative efficiency.
The 11-member Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC), led by Justice G M Gaikwad (retd.), was largely relied upon by the court for its conclusions. About 45,000 families from two villages in each of the 355 talukas where the Maratha population is greater than 50% were surveyed by the commission.
According to the report turned in on November 15, 2018, the Maratha group lags behind in terms of social, economic, and educational advancement. The HC expressed satisfaction with the facts and noted that the commission had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the Maratha group was socially, economically, and educationally behind. Additionally, it demonstrated that the Maratha minority was underrepresented in state government jobs.
Supreme Court’s say on Maratha reservation
A five-judge Supreme Court Constitution bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan overturned the Maharashtra law’s reservation provisions for the Maratha community in May 2021, citing the 50% ceiling established by the court in its 1992 Indra Sawhney (Mandal) ruling.
Following the Supreme Court’s November 2022 decision upholding the 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Sections, the state administration clarified that economically disadvantaged community members would continue to get benefits under the EWS quota until the Maratha reservation issue was settled.
After the SC denied the state government’s review plea in April of this year, the state government announced that it would file a curative petition. Additionally, the administration had announced the formation of a new, specialized body to conduct a thorough assessment of the community’s “backwardness.”
Current scenario
The Congress, NCP, Sharad Pawar section, and Shiv Sena (UBT) are now pressuring the government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to resolve the matter of the Maratha reservation in the state. They are pressuring CM Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to take action in favor of the community as the duo who belong to the community, are currently in power.
After the violence in several districts, notably, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced on Monday (30th October) that the government has constituted an advisory group to look into the Maratha reservation issue. The body will be led by a number of former judges.
“We have formed an advisory board on the subject of Maratha reservation under the leadership of retired Justice Bhosle, retired Justice Gaikwad, and retired Justice Shinde. This advisory board will give suggestions to the government on the matter of the Maratha reservation case in the Supreme Court. Along with this, we will also collect empirical data with the help of the Backward Classes Commission in the entire state. So that we can tell the Supreme Court in the curative petition that is pending how backward the Maratha community is,” CM Shinde was quoted as saying.
Will the Kunbi caste certificate benefit the Maratha community?
For the sake of the Maratha community, the Maharashtra government declared it would grant Kunbi caste certificates to those Marathas from Marathwada who had documents from the Nizam rule attesting to their status as Kunbis. As of today (October 31), the Maharashtra Revenue Department has started to issue Kunbi certificates to Maratha community members who possess legitimate documentation.
The state’s Kunbi community is classified as OBC given that they work in occupations connected to agriculture. If Marathas were granted Kunbi caste certificates, they would become recognized as members of the Kunbi community, receive OBC status, and be eligible for the reservations granted to OBCs.
However, the other OBC groups are against Marathas being classified as OBCs for reservation privileges. OBCs make up 52 percent of the state’s population and are divided into 382 castes, whereas Marathas make up 32 percent.
Manoj Jarange Patil ends hunger strike
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday (31st October) assured activist Manoj Jarange Patil that a concrete decision would be taken in the cabinet meeting regarding the Maratha reservations. He said that the matter regarding giving Kunbi certificates to the Maratha community will also be discussed. CM Shinde also said that the government has filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court.
Following a fruitful conversation with Chief Minister Shinde, Manoj Jarange Patil, who was on a hunger strike until his death in order to demand reservations for the Maratha community, ended the fast and consumed water. “The government has filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court for Maratha reservation. Therefore, I am hopeful that the Maratha community will get the reservation soon,” Patil said.
#ManojJarange शाहू महाराजांचा मान राखून दोन दिवस पाणी पिणार, पण आरक्षण मिळालं नाहीतर पुन्हा पाणी सोडणार; मनोज जरांगेंचा निर्धार #MarathaReservation https://t.co/kCKQdlO0mh
— ABP माझा (@abpmajhatv) October 31, 2023
The Police are said to have arrested around 49 people from Beed for engaging in the horrific violence. Also, curfew continues to be imposed in Maharashtra’s Dharashiv and Beed districts.
