The Maratha quota issue would be addressed in an all-party conference today in Mumbai, according to Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. After Jarange Patil, a Maratha quota campaigner, rejected the government’s response to the demand, the announcement was made a few days later.
Patil has gone on a 13-day hunger strike in order to demand that all Marathas get Kunbi classification, which is essentially an OBC quota.
Speaking at a gathering on Sunday in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, Pawar stated that although some Maratha people were wealthy, many were impoverished and in need of assistance. “It is important to make sure that Other Backward Classes are not impacted while providing the Maratha group with a quota. This problem can only be resolved by meetings and conversations, said Ajit Pawar.
Jarange and the administration have engaged in several rounds of negotiations, but so yet there has been no progress.
What Is the Problem with Maratha Reservations?
The Marathas, sometimes known as the “warriors,” are a confederation of clans that includes, among other people, peasants and landlords. They make up around 33% of the state’s population.
Jarange Patil and his followers are challenging the state government’s requirement that they provide a certificate proving they are Kunbis. Jarange Patil claims that the Marathas were regarded as Kunbis and OBCs till the end of the Nizam era in central Maharashtra in September 1948.
OBC groups are unwilling to give up their piece of the quota because they are concerned that if Marathas are added to the OBC list, their share would be consumed by the applicants.
The Kunbis have also resisted the quota requirement, arguing that not all Marathas should get certificates.
Supreme Court’s Opinion on the Maratha Quota
The Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act of 2018 originally offered the Maratha community reservations. The Supreme Court eventually nullified it, nevertheless.
A five-judge Supreme Court Constitution panel invalidated the Marathas’ reservations in 2021, ruling that they were illegal because they went over the 102nd Amendment’s 50% cap on reserves. According to the highest court, the neighborhood was not too socially or educationally behind to qualify under affirmative action.
The Supreme Court has declined to review its ruling.
‘Bandh’ Is What the Maratha Outfit Calls
In the meanwhile, the Sakal Maratha Morcha, a Thane-based Maratha organization supported by the Sambhaji Brigade, declared a “bandh” today in protest at the most recent police use of lethal force on demonstrators in Jalna. Following a conference, local leaders from the state’s opposition parties also endorsed the walkout.
The conference was attended by the city unit president of the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), Suhas Desai, his Shiv Sena (UBT) counterpart, Pradeep Shinde, MNS leaders Ravindra More and Avinash Jadhav, Ramesh Ambre from the Maratha Kranti Morcha, and Vikrant Chavan from the Congress.
At the beginning of this month, a Maratha reservation movement in the Jalna district’s Antarwali Sarathi hamlet descended into violence, injuring hundreds of police officers among others.
To disperse a hostile crowd that reportedly refused to allow officials move a man on a hunger strike as part of the quota protest to the hospital, police deployed lathi charges and tear gas shells.
