Maratha Quota Protests Called Off After Demands Accepted, Now OBCs Upset

Mumbai: Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil on Saturday ended his fast and also called off his march to Mumbai. He had started a hunger strike on Saturday. He said that the Eknath Shinde government has fulfilled all of his demands including Kunbi caste certificates for Marathas, which will make them eligible to get reservation in OBC category, and therefore the protests are now over. However, OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal said the government has only prepared a draft notification and invited objections/suggestions till February 16. Mr. Bhujbal, who is also a minister in the Shinde cabinet, said that any attempts to include Maratha community in the OBC category through backdoors will be opposed.

Following overnight deliberations, the Shinde government issued a notification late night on Friday. The notification has proposed the Kunbi recognition to ‘sage-soyare’ (affinal kin), which was one of the main demands made by Mr. Jarange.

The draft notification says, “The sage-soyare shall be considered among the relations/relatives from the patriarchal relatives as well as the relations forming out of marriages and proof being given to prove that the marriage is within the same caste, the Kunbi caste certificate shall be issued after field enquiry.” It means that if a Maratha woman has a Kunbi caste certificate and she is married within the same caste, all her relatives will be eligible to get Kunbi certificates.

Mr. Shinde visited Vashi and Navi Mumbai where Mr. Jarange and his thousand of supporters had gathered and stayed overnight. The Maharashtra CM handed over the copy of the government notification to the quota activists and also gave him a glass of juice to end his fast.

Kunbi, an agrarian community, falls in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, and Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange, who spearheads the agitation over the reservation issue, has been demanding Kunbi certificates for all Marathas.

“Till the Marathas get separate reservation, they will get all the rights and benefits enjoyed by the OBCs. Camps have been set up to collect affidavits from the community members and a committee at taluka level has also been formed to identify and verify the Kunbi lineage among Marathas,” Mr. Shinde said.

Mr. Jarange said that he is calling off his protests because the Shinde government has accepted all his demands including free education to all Marathas from pre-primary to post graduate degrees. “All blood relatives and family members from the same-caste marriage of a Maratha applicant, where even a single member’s Kunbi records have been found, should be given Kunbi caste certificates. We had demanded that all the 54 lakh certificates should be given immediately,” he said.

However, the Shinde government’s decision has upset the OBC leaders, who indicated that OBCs will also protest against “backdoor inclusion” of the Maratha community in the OBC category. “The draft notification issued by the state government providing Kunbi certificates to all Marathas is an eyewash. We will have to study it in details to find out if the government has done injustice to the OBCs or it has misguided Maratha community,” Mr. Bhujbal, who has been spearheading the OBC movement in the state, said.

The minister further informed that a meeting of all OBC leaders and organisations will be held at his official residence in Mumbai on Sunday where the future course of action will be decided. “Caste is determined by birth and not by affidavits. The government had assured that the Maratha community will be provided separate reservation without affecting the reservations given to SCs, STs and OBCs. If the Marathas are included in the OBC category, it will be opposed in courts and also on streets,” Mr. Bhujbal said.

OBCs enjoy 27 per cent reservation in Maharashtra. But they fear that if Marathas, who are the single largest caste in the state, are included in their category, they will take away most of the reservation benefits.

Another OBC leader Haribhau Rathod said that Mr Jarange has won a battle but lost the war. State Congress chief Nana Patole, who is also an OBC leader, said, “Mr. Jarange’s agitation is over. But it has raised more questions. It was the government's stand to give reservation to the Maratha community without disturbing anyone's reservation. If the government has accepted the demand of the Maratha community to give reservation from the OBC quota, then OBCs have been cheated.”

Stating that nobody is against the Maratha reservation, Mr. Patole added, “Economically, socially and educationally backward communities should be given reservation and for that it is important to conduct a caste-wise census and remove the 50 per cent limit on reservations.”