Assuaging the Marathas - Times of Viral

Manoj

The violent turn to the Maratha quota agitation that has roiled Maharashtra for some time will have consequences for the Eknath Shinde government. With legislators facing the brunt of the protestors’ ire, the state government called an all-party meeting on Wednesday. The consensus at the meeting was that Marathas deserved reservation, but outside the quota for other backward classes (OBCs). It didn’t elaborate on how this could be achieved, since the creation of a separate Maratha quota following the recommendation by the Justice MG Gaikwad Commission in 2018 was struck down by the Supreme Court. Reservations in Maharashtra are frozen at 52% and any attempt to expand it is likely to involve a protracted legal struggle. The government’s offer to bring all Marathas under the Kunbi category and thereby bring them under the OBC umbrella — Kunbis are designated as OBC — has not resolved the impasse since the certification (in Marathwada region) is based on papers establishing lineage. This is a complex, tiresome and mostly, fruitless bureaucratic exercise considering the state of documents in state archives and private possessions. However, these explanations are unlikely to appeal to the agitators, who seem convinced that quota leads to social and economic redemption.

Protesters during bandh for Maratha reservation. (HT PHOTO)

The Shinde government also faces a tricky situation since the quota conundrum could pit OBC communities already benefitting from reservation against the Marathas. The expansion of the Kunbi category to include all Marathas across the state will surely make the OBC category crowded: As of now, the OBC Kunbis are limited to the Konkan and Vidarbha regions of the state while the government has now extended to Marathwada. This has political ramifications with different parties eyeing different vote banks. The Marathas are largely seen to be supporters of the Nationalist Congress Party while the BJP has for long been wooing the non-Marathas. With parties sensitive to the concerns of their specific vote banks, a compromise on the quota demand, with the general election less than six months away, is not easy to achieve.

The Marathas, who reportedly constitute 37% of Maharashtra’s population, do not constitute a caste or class monolith. The structural shifts in the economy and the crisis in agriculture have had a major impact on their social and economic status, as in the case of farmer/peasant communities such as Patidars and Jats elsewhere. This has forced many to seek the comfort of secure public sector jobs, where the quota is an enabling factor. In the long run, the economic pie has to grow, and fast, so that discontent in the society does not spill out into the streets. It calls for deft politics.

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