The silent rallies by the Maratha community across the State in the past two months, has opened up the social, economic and political fault-lines in Maharashtra and has rattled the State government into taking steps. So far, over 30 rallies under the name ‘Maratha Kranti Morcha’ have been held in the state and the sea of Marathas waving saffron flags are led by many apolitical Maratha organisations.
Swapnil Rawal spoke to Purushottam Khedekar, chief of Maratha Seva Sangh, one of the driving forces behind the massive silent rallies by Marathas. Here are some the excerpts of the interview.
Are the Maratha organisations satisfied with the steps the State government has taken so far?
The government, on one hand, is trying to show that Marathas should get reservation at the same time they want to wait and watch and let the movement die a natural death. The 16% reservation given to Marathas as per the [Narayan] Rane committee is totally unconstitutional and cannot stand in either High Court or Supreme Court. There is a clear cut guideline that you can include people only in SC/ST and OBC category. How much ever the State government tries, it cannot do anything in this regard. The announcement of committees and other statement are just a show; they cannot give us reservation. It’s more of a political game than any concrete steps to resolve this issue. Marathas cannot be included in SC/ST. The only constitutional available source and opportunity for Maratha to get reservation is only and only through OBC category. Every state has a Backward Class Commission, but unfortunately, the Commission is defunct since a year. After the Saraf Commission, the State government has not appointed the new commission.
According to you, what concrete steps should the government take to secure reservation for the Marathas?
No political party in the state is serious about giving reservation. All the four major political parties have opposed reservations for Marathas till we started these morchas in August. If these parties are really serious about reservations, all the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members of Parliament from Maharashtra should put a strong case to Government of India to accept Sudarshan Nachiappan committee’s recommendations, who had Centre to break the cap of 50 per cent for reservations back in 2005. The party ruling in the State and the Centre is the same so it will not be difficult to introduce a Bill to lift the stay put by Supreme Court by accepting the recommendations of the Nachiappan committee. If this comes through, communities in every state, be it Patels, Jats, Gujjar, etc, can be included in OBC.
Why is the resentment running deep in the community?
It is a misconception that Marathas are dominating the politics in the state. Marathas have been in power for several years, but they haven’t done anything for the community. These Marathas have been in power not because of the caste, but because of the strength of their population. Despite this, Maratha leaders have not done anything for the community. Apart from that every caste or community will have rich and powerful people, but majority of them are economically backward.
The Kopardi incident was a trigger, but Maratha community has many problems including social, religious, cultural etc. The slandering of this community has been repeatedly happening through films, dramas, literary works since many years; Marathas are depicted as cruel, persecutors and an enemy of the society and community is upset because of this too.
This is a leaderless movement and people are joining forces on their own due to resentment and oppression since decades. The younger generation of the community has come out in Morchas because they want a better future. Many Marathas live in worse conditions than the OBCs due to ignorance.
The government, as you say, is playing a game of wait and watch. So in this case what are the options available before the Maratha organisations which are holding the massive silent rallies?
We are still discussing the next move; whether to approach the State government or wait for them to approach us, but the morchas across the State will continue and they will only grow bigger than the last one.
Also Read: State to pitch for Maratha Reservations in Bombay High Court
The State government has put out three major demands of the Marathas. What are the other issues the community is facing?
After Chief Minister [Devendra Fadnavis] chaired a meeting with us in September, he and the government have been saying that the Marathas have only three issues – the Kopardi case should be fast tracked, improvements in the Atrocity Act and reservations, but there are several other issues. The government is purposely neglecting our demands in the agriculture sector, including on the prices for agricultural produce and the implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission.
The culmination of these silent rallies has been slated to happen in Mumbai. When is the rally in Mumbai planned?
The date for the morcha in Mumbai is yet to be decided because the morchas in other parts of the state have increased; now the morchas have reached Tehsil level. So the morcha in Mumbai will not happen before October 30; it is now likely in November.
