Explained: Why Marathas are demanding quota and what’s fuelling unrest in Maharashtra

With the Maratha quota unrest taking a violent turn and two Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) MPs resigning in support of the cause, the politics over the issue has hot up in Maharashtra.

Treading with caution ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year followed by the state assembly polls, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shine has reached out to Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil who is on an indefinite fast over the issue since October 25. He told Patil that it is necessary to resolve the issue of the Maratha reservation legally and for this, the government has filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court. Patil was on a hunger strike from August 29 to September 14 and called off his agitation after the government assured him to look into his quota demand.

However, after the resumption of his hunger strike, the quota issue took a violent turn on Monday when the protesters went on a rampage and torched the residences/offices of at least three MLAs and also targeted a municipal council building. Most of the violent incidents were reported in the Beed district.

In another significant development, Hingoli MP Hemant Patil and Nashik MP Hemant Godse, both loyalists of CM Shinde, resigned from their Lok Sabha membership in support of the Maratha reservation cause.

Why are Marathas demanding reservation in Maharashtra?

With almost 32 per cent of the population in the state, Marathas primarily comprise peasants and landowners. The Maratha reservation issue revolves around the demand for reservations in educational institutions and government jobs for the Maratha community.

The call for Maratha reservation was first raised in the early 1980s when Mathadi Labour Union Annasaheb Patil led a protest rally in Mumbai while demanding that the community be recognised as Kunbis (farmers), which would make them eligible for benefits within the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota.

The implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations in the late 1980s revived the demand for Maratha quota in jobs and education. In 1997, a major agitation for Maratha reservation in government jobs and educational institutions was organised by the Maratha Mahasangh and the Maratha Seva Sangh.

In 2000, the issue was once again raised by some NCP leaders. Over the years, the demand gathered momentum as political parties too supported the demand. Some of them included it in their election manifestos.

The leaders from the community have always wielded political clout in the state with the likes of Sharad Pawar, Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan being the chief ministers in the past. However, Marathas have been demanding reservations in jobs and education while claiming that only a small section of their community enjoys power and a high position in society, while most of the people are living in extreme poverty.

Incidentally, even the state government had contended before the Supreme Court that “extraordinary conditions” such as the increase in the number of suicides due to indebtedness and deteriorating income among Maratha families justify the enactment of the Socially and Economically Backward Classes Act, 2018 (SEBC Act, 2018) on November 29, 2018.

The Act exceeded the recommended quotas, granting 16% reservation for Marathas in Maharashtra’s state educational institutions and appointments to public service. The argument was that the failure to treat this group as backward for decades has pushed its members deeper into social and educational backwardness.

What did the state government do to extend the reservation to the community?

It was the Congress-NCP regime led by Prithviraj Chavan that gave a major push to the Maratha reservation by according 16 per cent reservation to the community in the run-up to the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections.

The government had also extended an additional quota of 5 per cent to the Muslims in jobs and education. As expected, the move was soon challenged in the Bombay High Court which stayed the decision. Later, the BJP-Shiv Sena government challenged the HC decision in the Supreme Court in November 2014, but the apex court refused to vacate the Bombay High Court’s interim order.

Even as the Maratha quota movement showed no signs of dying down, the state government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in December 2016, justifying the reservation granted to the Maratha community, contending that it didn’t violate constitutional provisions.

Taking another step in the direction of the Maratha reservation, the Fadnavis government constituted the State Backward Class Commission in June 2017 to study the social, financial and educational status of the Maratha community. The commission submitted its report in November 2018.

However, the decision was yet again challenged in the Bombay High Court. However, this time the HC refused to grant an interim stay on the quota decision. After hearing all the petitioners in the case, the high court in March 2019 reserved its judgment. The Bombay HC finally delivered its verdict in June 2019, months before the Maharashtra assembly elections.

The high court upheld the constitutional validity of the Maratha reservation but based on the recommendations made by the State Backward Classes Commission, reduced the quota to 12 per cent from the 16 per cent originally proposed.

Not surprisingly, the Bombay High Court verdict upholding the Maratha quota law was challenged in the Supreme Court in July 2019. The apex court referred the matter to a larger bench.

The Supreme Court wanted to ascertain whether the state had the power to declare a class socially and economically backward or not. Later, on May 5, 201, the Supreme Court struck down the Maratha reservation law holding it unconstitutional.

A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court declared the Maratha quota law as unconstitutional. It quashed the Socially and Economically Backward Classes Act, 2018.

The Supreme Court unanimously agreed that there was no need to re-visit the 1992 Indira Sawhney judgment which fixed the reservation limit at 50 per cent. The Maratha quota law breached this limit. The Supreme Court held that separate reservation for the Maratha community violated Articles 14 (Right to Equality) and 21 (due process of law).

What measures have the Eknath Shinde government initiated now?

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said a three-member committee of experts will be constituted to advise the state government on submission of a proposed curative petition in the Supreme Court in connection with the Maratha quota issue. The panel will comprise of three retired judges.

The state government has already formed a committee, headed by retired judge Sandeep Shinde, to submit a report on how to issue Kunbi caste certificates to the Maratha community. “The committee will submit its report tomorrow (Tuesday, October 31) and it will be discussed in the cabinet meeting,” he said.

Shinde said they will also collect empirical data with the help of the Backward Classes Commission so that they can tell the Supreme Court how backward the Maratha community is. He said the government would accord reservation to the Maratha community under two schemes – one, via Kunbi caste certificates and the second based on economic backwardness that will undergo legal scrutiny.

Who is Manoj Jarange-Patil, at the centre of the Maratha quota agitation?

Not many people knew Patil till September 1 this year though he had been fighting for the cause of the Maratha reservation for a long.

He burst into the limelight when the police tried to forcibly shift him to a hospital on the fourth day of his hunger strike, leading to a clash with his supporters, on September 1. Leaders from almost all the political parties made a beeline to express their solidarity with him.

A marginal farmer from the Jalna district of Maharashtra, he is now being credited with reviving the Maratha quota movement in the state. Originally hailing from the adjoining Beed district, he settled at Shahgad in Jalna district after marriage. He joined the movement for the Maratha reservation almost 15 years back. Initially, he joined the Congress, but later founded an outfit called Shivba Sanghatana to hold protests for the Maratha reservation. The brutal rape and murder of a minor Maratha girl in Kopardi in 2016 sparked statewide protests. Shivba activists hit the headlines after they attacked the rape accused while they were being taken for a court hearing.

After the Supreme Court quashed the Maratha reservation quota in 2021, Jarange-Patil participated in demonstrations at various places, including a three-month agitation in Sasht-Pimpalgaon in Jalna district, where hundreds of people joined him. The then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray took note of the protest and invited Jarange-Patil for a meeting in Mumbai, after which the activist withdrew his protest.

This time, Patil eventually broke his fast on September 14 in the presence of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other politicians after receiving assurances about the reservation. He, however, gave the government a 40-day deadline to announce reservations for Marathas, which ended on October 24. Subsequently, he resumed his indefinite fast on October 25.