Maratha ire strains BJP, Sena alliance
UNREALISTIC
The flavour of the season is the demand for quotas from Jats of Haryana to Gujarat’s Patidars to Kapus of Andhra Pradesh. The Marathas are the latest to go on a war path in Maharashtra demanding reservation. They have resorted to peaceful silent marches but have threatened to escalate it soon. Even as the Fadnavis led BJP government in Maharashtra is struggling to face the unprecedented silent marches, there is unrest in other castes like OBCs, Muslims and Dalits.
The gruesome rape and murder of a young Maratha girl in July has triggered the protest marches from August. The girl was raped allegedly by three Dalit men in the Kopardi village of Ahmednagar district. Since then the Maratha uprising is picking up without the presence of politicians although powerful Maratha leaders of the state including Sharad Pawar and Ashok Chavan have given their tacit support to the silent movement.
The Marathas have three demands — reservation for Marathas, a modification of the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and punishment for the Kopardi rape accused. Under the said Act, stringent punishment including a prison sentence is given to those who hurt the sentiments of a Dalit through actions or words, or both. The Marathas claim that this act is being misused.
The “Muk morcha” is picking up since the first rally on August 10 in Aurangabad, which turned out to be far beyond expectations. The novelty is that almost every rally since then (40 such rallies) is led by women and school-going girls carrying placards demanding justice for the Kopardi victim. They account for almost 30 per cent of the protesters. The politicians are keeping away avoiding responsibility in case of the movement becoming a failure.
Why are the Marathas angry? The demand for quota dates back to the 1980s with the late chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and NCP chief Sharad Pawar tacitly supporting it ahead of 2009 polls. In 2014, the Congress-NCP government led by Prithviraj Chavan passed a law providing for 16 per cent reservation to Marathas in education and jobs to appease them. However, within a year, the Bombay High Court scrapped the quota stating that the community is neither socially nor educationally backward. The final order is pending.
The Fadnavis government is facing a catch 22 situation. The Marathas account for 34 per cent of the population and have played dominant role in the socio economic and political ethos of the state. They have adequate representation (33 per cent) in the present Assembly and 13 of the 18
Pak. There is no difference between a veteran thief and a novice. Despite Pak’s spoiled image, China is supporting it because China treats India as its potential rival. Russia is visibly condoning Pak’s crime by undertaking joint anti-terrorist military drill with Pakistan. —N K Das Gupta
losing a part of their revenues or innocent soldiers losing their lives, leaving behind their families? chief ministers of the state were from this community. The creamy layer among them holds land, money, political power, educational institutions and industries. They control the rural economy by holding co-operative bodies including banks and sugar co-ops. Interestingly, while OBCs and other castes have made progress in education, the Marathas have not found edge here, which they attribute to lack of reservation.
Politically the agitation has shaken the ruling BJP-Sena combine. The chief minister, who is a Brahmin, understands that caste politics can work against him as Brahmins comprise only 3.5 per cent of the state population. Already there are speculations that these rallies are a ploy to ensure his ouster. The BJP did well by getting 24 per cent of the Maratha votes in 2014 Assembly polls. Fadnavis understands that the demands of the community are hard to meet. The major issue is how to accommodate them within the stipulated limit without annoying other castes.
On the other hand, BJP’s coalition partner Shiv Sena is openly siding with the Marathas. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has even demanded a special session to discuss the S.C. Atrocities Act.
Like in the BJP, Marathas in the Congress and its off-shoot, the NCP, are equally restless. Both the parties lost their Maratha base in the recent Assembly polls and also fear a rout in the forthcoming local body polls. Pawar is a tall Maratha leader and is trying to make the Fadnavis government the villain. He wants to make sure that the NCP does well in the ensuing 110 Municipal Corporation, 26 Zilla Parishad polls and 297 panchayat as well as 206 municipal council polls. So does the Congress.
The recent mobilisation of Marathas is opening up other fronts. It has pitted them against the Dalits. The two have an uneasy relationship for decades. There is a growing resentment among the young Marathas that the Atrocities act empowers the Dalits to act against the upper caste. The BJP is caught in the middle because the Dalits have supported the BJP in the Assembly polls.
Secondly, it has provoked the OBCs to mobilise their community to start similar marches. The Dalits (10.8 percent) and OBCs (26 percent) are trying to forge a new alliance to tackle the Marathas. In the past, the OBCs have vehemently opposed the inclusion of Marathas in the OBC category. Thirdly, the opposition parties are using the agitation as a weapon against the Fadnavis government.
All these bring us to the basic question of reservation. Is it possible for every caste to get reservation, defeating the very purpose? How is it constitutionally viable? The votebank politics will only further harm the social fabric.
The time has come to review the reservation policy and find other ways of meeting their genuine demands. The economically weaker sections in all castes and communities certainly deserve quotas and the political parties and the community leaders should move towards this goal or else the social fabric will be torn further. — Siddesh Sawant
region. Few will be shedding tears for the regional grouping though. Whatever the merits or demerits on either side of the Kashmir dispute, it has poisoned the Saarc waters from the outset. The organisation has done nothing to ease the tensions between India and Pak, and emerges nowhere as an honest broker, and none of the other members has the heft to bring either of the protagonists to the table — and keep them there. No practical solution has been advanced and with the two principal players not in the same playbook never mind on the same page, Saarc is a neutered talking shop. — J Akshay
The programme of the Maharashtra Government, spelled out by Governor Shri Sri Prakasa in his address to the joint session of the State Legislature, is anything but modest. This may be forgiven to some extent; for it takes an ambitious programme, full of promise, to produce popular enthusiasm among the people. But ambition must have some relation to reality. The programme adumbrated by the Governor does not confirm to this rule. In fact, Shri Sri Prakasa’s address, in most respects is of a piece with the “Approach to the Third Plan” drawn up by a Government appointed study group back in August 1960. The fact that the study group envisaged a total outlay of Rs. 790.90 crores and the approved size of the State plan is limited to Rs. 390 crores does not appear to have made much difference to the Government’s ambitions. While one must welcome the State Government’s plan to convert a “rural” economy into an “agroindustrial” economy, one cannot see how this transformation can be effected in a hurry. This can be done if the priorities are drawn up more carefully. It is not only a question of resources but of experience as well. Plans of expenditure in respect of economic and social overheads are the best instruments available to the State for encouraging rapid industrialisation. Another field where the Government can do some useful work is in the promotion of medium and small-scale industries by cutting out the red-tape that holds up the proposals of entrepreneurs until they lose all enthusiasm. The Governor was brutally realistic when he said that the most important thing that needed to be done was to secure industrial truce. This had been promised by the Chief Minister on the eve of the birth of Maharashtra, and nothing at all has been done in this direction. A disappointing feature in the address is the Governor’s reference to the introduction of the Panchayat Raj in Maharashtra. It seems the Government has yet to make up its mind on the report of the Committee appointed last year. February 3, 1961 matters regarding national security. Provocative speeches and debates should be avoided. Muslims in India must be ensured that they have nothing to fear. National integrity to keep our communal fabric intact is the need of the hour. Politicians too should forget their differences and speak in one language irrespective of the Party they belong to. Pakistan on its part can still put its house in order by agreeing to peace dialogues.
—S N Kabra