Keeping the Maratha pot boiling

A perennial political problem in Maharashtra is back in the spotlight, thanks to diehard Maratha leader Manoj Jarange Patil. A native of Jalna district in Marathwada region, Patil has demanded that the Maratha community be downgraded as Kunbi, an Other Backward Class (OBC), whereas presently it has the status of an ‘advanced’ class. Recognition as Kunbis will make Marathas eligible for reservation in government jobs and education (they are seeking 10 per cent quota under the OBC category).

The distinction between Kunbi and Maratha is nebulous. Kunbis, like the Jats of North India, are agriculturists. It is probable that those families which had a prominent presence in Shivaji’s army formed the nucleus of the community we now call ‘Maratha’.

Marathas constitute 30 per cent of the state’s population. They are landholders, including some big landlords. Political power is in their hands and so is the cooperative movement that controls the sugar industry. Not many blue-blooded Marathas would like to be bracketed with Kunbis, who are either landless peasants or very small landowners.

The Maratha community has largely remained educationally backward and hence has found itself at a disadvantage when its members compete for white-collar jobs. Patil’s demand arises from the paucity of jobs available for the less educated. The principal opposition to his plea comes from the present beneficiaries of OBC reservations. The BJP-led government is faced with a Hobson’s choice. It cannot afford to displease the Marathas, but the OBCs have more voters in their ranks.

Patil’s supporters disrupted day-to-day life in Mumbai for five days, beginning on August 29. With an eye on the upcoming municipal elections, the state government initially preferred to play the waiting game, even as the Bombay High Court directed Patil and others to respond to allegations of large-scale damage to public property during the quota stir.

Patil ended his hunger strike on Tuesday after the state government announced the formation of a committee to issue Kunbi caste certificates to Maratha community members with ‘historical evidence’ of their Kunbi heritage. The government has also assured OBC protesters that their reservation would not be affected by a decision on the Maratha quota.

Another issue with political ramifications in Maharashtra concerns contractors working on state government projects. They have claimed that payments totalling Rs 89,000 crore have not been made over a year-long period. Contractors are finding it difficult to carry on with the projects. I am not surprised. The main goal of winning elections requires the poor to be kept fed at least till they cast their votes for the ruling party. The Ladki Bahin Yojana, rolled out in a desperate hurry before the 2024 Assembly elections, has sent state finances into a free fall. The government is still in the process of fixing the mess, but if it stops distributing largesse now, it runs the risk of losing the support that led it to victory last year. The Opposition, spearheaded by NCP (Sharad Pawar) MP Supriya Sule, has upped the ante against the government over contractors’ dues. Sule is emerging as a big-time leader in her own right.

Meanwhile, Ganesh Chaturthi brought together two cousins — former CM Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray. Uddhav, who heads the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), visited Raj’s residence in Mumbai for Ganpati Darshan last week. They hope to enthuse Shiv Sainiks to unitedly vote the newly reunited cousins to victory in the municipal polls.

I am not sure that the results will reflect that aspiration. The Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena is likely to play spoilsport. If it does so, the outfits led by the Thackerays will face an existential crisis. For decades, the Sena has functioned with the help of funds sourced from the Municipal Corporation. This is the general perception of Mumbai’s suffering population.

The week gone by also witnessed a meeting between Uddhav and the Opposition’s vice presidential candidate, B Sudershan Reddy, at the former’s residence in Mumbai. Justice Reddy, a former judge of the Supreme Court (SC), acknowledged that consensus on his candidature would not have been possible without Uddhav’s backing.

Notably, 56 retired judges of the SC and high courts reproached 18 others who had come out openly in favour of Justice Reddy’s candidature. This group of ex-judges requested the others to desist from lending their names to partisan statements. I agree with them that judges should not get involved in politics even after they have demitted office.

However, as a citizen of this country, I disagree even more vehemently with Home Minister Amit Shah, who hit out at Reddy over a 2011 judgment of the SC Division Bench against tribal militia Salwa Judum. The Chhattisgarh government of the day had raised Salwa Judum and armed its members to take on Maoists in the forests and villages of that state.

Shah routinely puts into practice the principle that the ends justify the means. Another BJP stalwart, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has become hugely popular in his state because the police force keeps local gangsters perpetually in the sights of their rifles.

Shah criticised Justice Reddy as he was one of the two judges who ordered the disbanding of Salwa Judum. A similar experiment was introduced by KPS Gill in Punjab after he succeeded me as the head of the state police force, which was fighting Khalistani terrorists at that time. There is an innate danger in arming civilians without legal authority. Even unleashing vigilantes on the doubtful pretext of aiding the police in their duties, like the cow vigilantes active in some Hindi-speaking states are doing, is an illegal and highly dangerous move. Lack of responsibility for their actions leads them into the arena of criminality.

The Home Minister’s lament that Naxal or Maoist activities would have ended several years earlier in Chhattisgarh had the SC not declared Salwa Judum illegal is a fallacious supposition.