Maratha stir inspires others to protest
Organisations representing Muslims, Dalits and OBCs plan agitations
Even as the Maharashtra government is struggling to deal with the unprecedented protest marches by the Maratha community, various other organisations representing other castes, Muslims and Dalits plan to launch their own agitations.
The Maratha Kranti Manch has been organising protests all over the state, demanding 16 per cent reservation for the community in government jobs, death penalty for the rapists and killers of a girl from Kopardi village in Ahmednagar district, and prevention of the misuse of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The Maratha community comprises 32 per cent of the state’s population. The trigger for their protests was the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl at the village, about 150 km southeast of Mumbai, in July. The accused have been arrested.
The Other Backward Classes, or the OBCs, comprise 27 per cent of the state’s population. Under the banner of Maharashtra Mali Samaj Mahasangh, they have called for a silent march on Monday.
They are supporting the Maratha community’s demands — but don’t want their share in the reservation pie to be compromised.
Anil Mahajan, the president of the organisation, said the protest was being organised to demand more jobs and also to press for OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal’s bail. Bhujbal is currently in jail as an accused in corruption cases.
Some member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have also extended their support to the OBC cause, such as Member of Parliament from the Bhandara–Gondiya constituency of the Vidarbha region, Nanabhau Patole.
He told Business Standard: “I believe that a separate ministry should be set up for the OBCs.”
Leaders of the Muslim community, too, are mulling rallies. They want the five per cent reservations provided to them by the previous Congress and Nationalist Congress Party government to be restored.
The reservation in jobs was scrapped by the Bombay High Court, and the state government scrapped the quota in educational institutions.
A Congress legislator and former minister of minority affairs, Naseem Khan, has refuted the claim of the BJP that the previous government had provided the reservation on religious grounds.
“It was purely on the basis of Muslims’ social and economic backwardness,” he said.
Samajwadi Party legislator Abu Azmi has taken a lead in organising the meeting of the community leaders to work out a strategy to demand reservation and also for taking out a march.
He said Muslims would be forced to hit the streets if the reservation was not restored.
Youths from the Dalit community, too, are planning on organising protest marches. They met in Aurangabad last week. Their demand: The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act should remain untouched.
A Republican Party of India (Athawale) leader, who did not want to be named, said a statewide agitation would be launched to press for the effective implementation of the Act. However, he added complaints of its misuse should be looked into as well.
BJP MP Patole said he would move an amendment to the Act to avoid its misuse.
“Information gathered under the Right to Information Act has revealed that in 95 per cent of the cases, persons booked under the Act have been acquitted,” he said.
In a bid to placate the Maratha community the government would soon be sending its representatives to meet their leaders.