The winter session of Maharashtra’s Legislative Assembly is a brief one—just two weeks long—but like the proverbial small chilli being the spiciest the session has developed a reputation for throwing up explosive issues and legislation.
This year was no exception, with the controversial matter of reservation for Marathas in government jobs and educational institutions dominating the session. On November 29, the Assembly unanimously passed a Bill providing 16 per cent reservation for Marathas.
When Marathas raised a demand for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions citing socio-economic backwardness, there was a mixture of surprise and hostility. Ever since Maharashtra was created in 1960, 11 of the State’s 24 Chief Ministers have been Marathas. Apart from being firmly entrenched in the State’s politics, the community controls the sugar sector. It wields significant clout in agriculture and cooperative sectors. The common perception of the community is one of being prosperous and powerful.
The demand was first raised in 2014 under a Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government and it would have been granted but for legal hurdles. Now, four years later and after more than one show of strength by the community, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena government has given it reservation in government jobs and educational institutions. The announcement in this regard was made by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on November 15 and placed before the Cabinet on November 18. Both in 2014 and this year, elections were just months away when the governments took the decision.
There have been some hurdles to the demand but these have been overcome with some skilful political manoeuvring. The fact that there has been no opposition to the plan from any political party is an indication of how potent the matter is from an electoral point of view.
Perception of prosperity
The basic objections to the demand were the common perception of the prosperity of the community and a Supreme Court ruling capping reservation at 50 per cent (granting reservation to Marathas would take the overall reservation to 68 per cent). Also, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) feared that reservation for Marathas would eat into their quota.
In an effort presumably to understand the general perception of prosperity of the community, the State government asked the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission to produce a report on the socio-economic condition of Marathas. The commission, headed by Justice (retd) N.G. Gaikwad, reportedly went through two lakh memorandums received by it, surveys of 45,000 families from two villages each in the 355 taluks where Marathas account for more than 50 per cent of the population, and existing data on the socio-economic status of the community. It found that almost 63 per cent of Marathas owned small and marginal landholdings and that 37 per cent of them were below the poverty line.
The final conclusion was that the community was indeed socio-economically backward and deserved a quota in government jobs and educational institutions, but the commission was emphatic that the quota must not interfere with the existing quota for OBCs. The commission presented a 1,000-page report to the government on November 15, just before the winter session of the State Legislature began.
There were obviously political considerations behind approving the demand. In June 2014 too, the then Congress-NCP government headed by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan announced 16 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for Marathas and a 5 per cent quota for Muslims. Then, as now, the announcement was made in the months preceding an election. An ordinance was issued to this effect but it was challenged in the courts; in November that year the Bombay High Court stayed that decision, and four days later, the Supreme Court refused to vacate the stay. Four years later, in July this year, the government took a stab at pushing the plan through. The government announced 16 per cent reservation for Marathas in 72,000 government jobs. This was stayed after protests, but the government seemed determined to proceed, especially given that elections are likely in the next six months (Assembly elections in the State are also due next year along with the Lok Sabha election).
Opposition by OBCs
Opposition to the reservation came from the OBCs, who feared that it would eat into their existing quota of 27 per cent since Marathas also fall in the OBC category. To keep both sides happy, the government created a new independent subcategory for Marathas, called Socially and Educationally Backward Class, so that their quota was separate from that of the OBCs.
Since the prevailing reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (S.Ts), OBCs and VJNT (Vimukta Jati or Special Backward Class and Nomadic Tribes) together is 52 per cent, the government had to create legislation for the 16 per cent for Marathas. The reservation limit, imposed by the Supreme Court in 1992, is 50 per cent but Maharashtra has already crossed that limit.
There is a legal loophole that allows the State to use its discretion in the matter, depending on the proportion of the socio-economically backward population. In this regard, it is understood that if there is any legal challenge to increasing reservation the State will fall back on the argument given by Tamil Nadu, which increased quotas to 69 per cent (although the matter is pending before the Supreme Court).
Fadnavis had promised that the long-pending demand would be implemented in December this year, but there were doubts about this because the two-week-long winter session does not allow enough time for debate (even though all parties are in favour of the demand). Government’s keenness
The government’s keenness indicated that it had been working overtime in this regard. A ministerial subcommittee formed in November had held meetings with the Law and Judiciary Department and seemed to be reasonably confident that the legislation would go through.
On the penultimate day of the session, the Bill was unanimously passed by the Legislative Assembly and the Council. The opposition, although in support of the legislation, was insistent that the commission’s report be tabled since that would be the correct procedure.
This point was insisted upon by Prithviraj Chavan, who quoted from Article 15 of the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes Act, which states that it is mandatory to present every report before both Houses of the legislature along with the government’s Action Taken Report. Chavan pushed his point by saying that the 2014 ordinance was struck down by the court because of just such a lapse. He quoted the court as saying that neither the Justice Bapat Commission report nor the Rane Committee report—both earlier studies on the socio-economic status of Marathas—had been tabled on the floor of either House despite it being a procedural requirement. Existing problems
Accepting the demand for reservation for Marathas may open up a can of worms. There are existing problems to be worked through. For instance, the OBC leader Anil Mahajan has pointed out that Kunbi-Marathas are already availing themselves of a part of the existing OBC reservation quota (Kunbi-Marathas are largely agriculturists who opted for reservation under the OBC category about 50 years ago). Will they have to forgo this if Marathas get their own reservation category?
Then there is the issue of the Maratha Kranti Morcha, which had spearheaded the agitation for reservation, and had first wanted a quota under the OBC category. OBC groups had opposed this because it would diminish their share. Even after being assured that this will not happen, OBCs have been agitating against the Maratha demand because they say that the Nomadic Tribes and Special Backward Class have their quota within the OBC category.
For this reason, OBC leaders want their quota to be increased, and the Dhangars, or shepherds, want to be moved from the OBC to the S.T. category. Muslims have also renewed their demand for a 5 per cent quota. These and other similar questions will need to be addressed.
NCP, Congress in quandary
The urgency in pushing through the Bill is obviously related to the elections next year. The BJP had a backup plan of pushing through the legislation in the Budget session of the House in March 2019 if it did not succeed in the winter session. The success will give the BJP a huge fillip in the upcoming Assembly elections. On the other hand, if the legislation is legally challenged before the elections, then the BJP stands to face the ire of Marathas, who form about a third of the State’s population.
The issue has to some extent put the Congress and the NCP in a bit of a quandary. Although these two parties had initiated the plan for reservation for Marathas, they could not carry it out. Like many other plans, this too is one where the seeds were sown by the Congress and the fruits enjoyed by the BJP.
If the legislation is not challenged in court before the elections, then the Congress and the NCP will realise their worst fears. Marathwada and western Maharashtra are bastions of both parties and a swing in the Maratha vote will hit them hard. However, it is a tricky balancing act for the BJP too, because in providing reservation for Marathas it could end up alienating the party’s traditional voters, the OBCs, who are already resentful that their quota has not been upped and that they have to share it with the Special Backward Class and Nomadic Tribes.
In this political jugglery of numbers and creating subcategories, the essence of what reservation was meant to achieve is diluted or lost altogether. Clearly, this demand has grown in strength only because of the agrarian crisis that has hit the State. With agriculture in crisis, agrarian communities such as Marathas, Jats and Patels are taking the reservation route as a means of safeguarding community interests. However, in the context of the agrarian crisis, quotas are a limited solution to the problem.
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