Representation given to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to cancel Maratha Reservations.

December 6, 2014

The Hon. Chief Minister,

Govt. of Maharashtra,

Mantralaya,

Mumbai.

Cc       :   The Minister for Education and Chairman of Review Committee ,

(Issue of Maratha Reservations)

Govt. of Maharashtra, Mantralaya,

Mumbai.

Sub :  Our sincere request / representation  to cancel the Maratha Reservations.

Respected Sirs,
From newspaper reports of today, we learn that the Maharashtra government has on Friday, December 5, 2014, filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court against the order of the Bombay High Court that stayed reservations in jobs and educational institutions for the Maratha community.
The decision to offer 16 per cent reservation to Marathas was implemented by the previous Congress-NCP government in the run-up to the Maharashtra Assembly election earlier this year.
Last month, the High Court stayed the decision.
On the subject, we would like to humbly submit to you as under:

1.    We actually wanted to give this representation to the Review Committee. But in view of the fluid political situation then prevailing in the State, we thought that we shall approach the committee once the issue of Govt. formation is settled. Therefore, we were surprised to read that the Govt. has already gone ahead and filed the Special Leave Petition in the apex court.

2.    In view of the observations made by the High Court while granting the stay, we feel that on such a serious issue it would have been appropriate for the govt. to have invited observations from the Civil Society instead of hurriedly taking a pre-conceived decision. Unfortunately, that has not happened and hence this representation.

3.    A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court had challenged the previous Maharashtra Govt. cabinet’s decision to grant 16 per cent reservation to the Maratha community in government jobs and educational institutions.

4.    The petition had claimed that the government had fraudulently categorized Marathas as ‘socially and educationally backward’, and that it has violated the Supreme Court order regarding reservations by doing so.

5.    It has further said that the Maratha community is not a caste group, and is traditionally powerful and wealthy. It owns majority of the land, sugar co-operatives and co-operative banks in the State.

6.    It has further alleged that the State’s decision to brand the Maratha Community as ‘Socially & Educationally Backward’ is a fraud committed upon this country & it’s Constitution and the decision has defrauded the basic fabric of the Constitution.

The journey to reservation

In view of the above PIL and subsequent decision of the High Court,  the ALERT CITIZENS FORUM OF INDIA want to highlight to you the following:

a)    In Maharashtra, the word MARATHA is synonymous with POWER.

b)    The Maratha community, which accounts for a third of the State’s population, traces its lineage to the warrior king Shivaji. It is considered a “caste cluster” including both Kshatriya “warriors” and the agricultural peasantry.

c)    The community has traditionally supported the Congress party and its offshoot, the NCP. However, over time, deprived sections of this vote-bank drifted to the Shiv Sena and later to the BJP.

d)    Initially, Marathas opposed reservations because they did not want the “backward” label. However, after Other Backward Class (OBC) reservations were declared, the community found its political dominance challenged.

e)    Once in conflict with Dalits and Brahmins, the Marathas now found themselves challenged by the OBC community. The decline of the cooperative sector and agriculture on which they depended made the community more strident.

f)     To begin with, Maratha groups demanded reservation within the OBC category. A Maratha sub-caste known as ‘Kunbi’ from the agricultural community was included in the OBC quota.

g)    By 2000 the demand for wider reservations grew louder, as did the assertion of Maratha identity. Their militancy peaked in 2004, when the Sambhaji Brigade attacked Pune’s Bhandarkar Institute to protest against scholar James Laine’s book, claiming it had insulted Shivaji.

h)    The quota pot simmered since then but the Congress-NCP paid little heed till their utter rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The previous Congress – NCP government’s desperation to placate its traditional base ahead of the Assembly polls has clearly propelled the quota card.

Our Observations on the issue of Maratha Reservation :

"Religion is what which keeps poor men from murdering rich ones ". When Napoleon Bonaparte actually told this, he did not know that after some three hundred years, some weird government would change his historical quote.

Today Government of Maharashtra not only changed it but gone further and brought some complex definition that it's not religion but the castes which keep poor people from murdering the rich ones.

The real question persists as whether the decision taken by Government of Maharashtra is constitutionally valid or not?

 According to the famous Mandal commission report, the reservation should not go beyond 50 percent except in some extraordinary cases.

The Government of Maharashtra seems to have taken this 'extraordinary' word very seriously. 

 Let us decode as who really is this Maratha community.

The identity of any community gets established when some men start writing some manuscripts about their era. As far as Marathas are concerned their literature renaissance started in early 1200 A. D with the emergence of Dnyaneshwara.

Though the concept of 96 clans of Maratha started to evolve after the birth of Shivaji but the nomenclature or background of particular clan is not derived from their linkages with Shivaji's era rather with the linkages with different dynasties.

For e.g the surname More came from Maurya dynasty and Bhosale came from Hoysal dynasty. The politically high classes Marathas were the results of sanskritization of some of these clans.

Today this Maratha community dominates the politics of Maharashtra with nearly half the ministers in the government belonging to this community. They do control 80 % percent of sugar industries of Western Maharashtra
         
To some extent we may agree that some people of this community might be economically backward. It is hard to believe that they are socially and educationally backward. In fact this community has complete monopoly over West Maharashtra and some heavyweights such as Prithviraj Chavan, Sharad Pawar and Narayan Rane themselves belong this community.

Earlier in 2008,  Sharad Pawar had  refused to support Maratha reservation and  he was praised for his decision. Today the same people who considered him as a nationalist must be regretting.
It is very easy to conclude that the decision is the result of the worst performance of Congress NCP government in the recent Loksabha election.

Now that the Govt. has filed an SLP, let’s check the possible constitutional deadlock about the decision.

As earlier stated only the state in which there is an ‘extraordinary situation’  can operate for more than 50 % reservation criteria.

In case of Tamil Nadu, reservation entitled is 69%. When the case was filed in Supreme Court against Tamil government's decision the state argued that the reservation policy in Tamil Nadu is continuing from the year 1921. The reservation was the result of the social movements which happened before 1921.

So they argued that the reservation policy was continuing much before Mandal commission's decision on reservations and hence this fulfills the exception criteria of Tamil Government..

Supreme Court of India ordered them to submit quantifying data about different caste for continuing the reservation. Meanwhile Tamil government has also passed the Tamil Nadu reservation act 1994 to validate their decision.

As far as Maharashtra is considered, the previous CM Chavan had made two excuses - the first one is that this reservation policy is based on the recommendations of the Narayan Rane committee (Maharashtra is the first state where a  committee on such research oriented subject is formed with Minister that too with one who himself belong to Maratha community) and secondly, on the recommendation of the Mandal commission.

 The real question is that Maharashtra did not have such an old history of reservation as compared to Tamil Nadu. Also it will be hard to defend the decisions particularly when they are recommended by unreliable committees. Particularly recommendation of the Narayan Rane committee can be easily dismissed by the courts.

 It will be extremely tough for the current Maharashtra government to prove and quantify that the Marathas are educationally backward specially when very small number of people were included in a survey by Narayan Rane Committee.

In Maharashtra, the reservation was first time given to Dalits by Shahu Maharaj. If Maharashtra government will try to defend their decision by naming Shahu  Maharaj , then it will also fail since you can't compare Dalits with Maratha community.

The main fear here is of some other social consequences.

When any government takes welfare decisions then it is very hard to retrograde it. While reversing the decision there is always a fear of political consequences.

 Also, because of this decision there is a danger that the Brahman's who were silent until now might wake up fearfully and  a new direct confrontation  between Brahmans and Non Brahmans might start.             

We have already seen that the caste equations vanished in this year’s Lok Sabha election. Today’s generation wants development, better education, better job and business opportunities, bereft of the age-old caste ridden politics.

Sirs, it’s crystal clear that the previous Govt. has decided to give this Maratha and Muslim reservation purely on “electoral vote bank considerations.” They never had the state’s interest in their minds.

If your govt. is going to defend that blunder in the Supreme Court, it will be like throwing the state from frying pan into fire.

We reiterate here that people have voted for you because they want a change. A change from the age-old, dirty, religion and caste-ridden divisive politics played by the Congress – NCP govt.

You have a chance to change Maharashtra’s destiny. These Athavale, Mete’s etc have no love for you or your ideology. Be sure, they will desert you at first opportunity.

But if you perform well, the younger generation of Dalits, Maratha’s, Muslims all will support you. Just look across and recollect how Modi had transformed Gujarat.

So our final plea – please – in your own words, don’t run the govt. to merely save the govt. Think out of the box. Scrap these dangerous Maratha and Muslim reservations.

Your state expects that from you.

Regards,

For ALERT CITIZENS FORUM OF INDIA,

Dayanand Nene                                                                                             Shasi Nair

President                                                                                                         Secretary

Members: Jitendra Satpute, Kiran Joshi, Prasad Bedekar, Dilip Kankale, Adv Shrirang Mulye, Rakesh Yadav.