Maratha reservation: Why promises made by Devendra Fadnavis mean nothing
After seven suicides and unstoppable agitations across the state, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis finally decided to speak directly to the state through Doordarshan's Marathi channel Sahyadri and promised the agitating Maratha's that the government will try to fulfil its promise by November-end and call a special Assembly session if need be.
Fadnavis also said that by August 7 the Maharashtra State Commission for the Backward Classes will set a deadline to prepare the report on Maratha reservation. The government plans to introduce the reservation bill in the Assembly in November.
Fadnavis appealed to the agitating youths to stop indulging in violence. Referring to a central government report, Fadnavis said that Maharashtra has the highest job opportunities.
The government is trying to build Aurangabad and Jalna as business hubs, he informed. "If rioting and violence continue in Aurangabad in the name of caste, religion and issue of garbage collection which investor will come to invest? I appeal that we follow the way of governance showed to us by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. We should try to resolve the issue through communication and not violence," Fadnavis said.
Despite Fadnavis' assurances the question that remains is whether his government can resolve the issue of Maratha reservations by November 2018.
And the simple answer to the question, without any ifs and buts, is — No.
The process to add a new caste to the reservation category is quite tedious, especially after Supreme Court's directive that overall reservation cannot exceed 50 per cent.
Maharashtra already grants 52 per cent reservations. It would be impossible to add Marathas to any other reserved category as no group would agree to such an arrangement.
The only solution now for the government is to wait for the report of the backward class commission because it may come up with a formula similar to what is used in Tamil Nadu allowing additional reservations by adding new castes to the backward category.
The reservation demand of the Maratha community is rather old. In 2004, the Congress-NCP government tried to get the desired report from the backward class commission, but failed.
In 2008, during the time of the Vilasrao Deshmukh government, the commission rejected the backward status of the Marathas by a majority of 4:2.
During the tenure of Ashok Chavan a subcommittee of ministers was formed to take the demand forward but it could yield no result.
It was around 2012 that Maratha protesters started taking to the streets to press for their demand but the commission refused to submit any report on the matter.
Finally, the Prithviraj Chavan government set up a committee under Congress leader Narayan Rane to look into the demand. It was on the basis of the report submitted by Rane's committee that an ordinance was passed granting 16 per cent quota to Marathas, which was quite obviously shot down by the court because the move did not have the backing of the backward class commission.
The bill passed by the Fadnavis government in Assembly too has been stayed by the court on the same premise. The court has asked the government to submit the report of the backward class commission report.
And this is where the glitch is.
The 10-member commission actually started working on the Maratha reservation in March 2018 and by end of June it had conducted 20 public hearings with regards to the matter. Around 1,86,000 petitions have been submitted to the commission. It asked five agencies to conduct surveys in 36 districts of Maharashtra. The agencies have surveyed four tehsils and two villages in each district where Maratha populations is over 1,500.
All five agencies submitted their reports of the socio-economic survey to the commission by the end of July.
It is now that the commission's work will start. With the help of sociologists and economists the data collected so far will be analysed.
If the report is in favour of reservation for Marathas then the state cabinet will have to introduce a new bill in the Assembly.
As of now which way the case goes is completely in the hands of the Maharashtra State Commission for the Backward Classes headed by MG Gaikwad.
Sources in the commission say that the report may not be out before December end.
The challenge for Fadnavis till then is to ensure the law and order situation doesn't deteriorate.
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