Maratha quota agitation: A cat among the many pigeons

In colonial India, folks would place a cat inside a cage with pigeons and make bets on the variety of birds it might deliver down with one paw swipe. This betting sport is claimed to have given beginning to the phrase “set the cat among the many pigeons”. In colonial India, folks would place a cat inside a cage with pigeons and make bets on the variety of birds it might deliver down with one swipe of its paw. The sport is claimed to have given beginning to the phrase “to set the cat among the many pigeons”.

One thing of the kind occurred in Maharashtra on September 1 when the police in Jalna district lathicharged supporters of a 40-year-old farmer who was on a starvation strike demanding reservation for Marathas. Movies of the police motion went viral on social media, and the “fasting farmer” began pulling in enormous crowds, making him, virtually in a single day, a power to reckon with.

Manoj Jarange-Patil’s arrival comes at an important juncture within the ongoing sport of cube being performed out in Maharashtra’s seemingly never-ending energy struggles.

The proverbial sword of Damocles hangs over Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s head after the Supreme Court docket rebuked State Meeting Speaker Rahul Narwekar for delaying a call on the cross-petitions filed by rival factions of the Shiv Sena in search of disqualification of one another’s legislators following a cut up within the celebration final yr.

Shinde stands to lose the crown by the yr finish if he and his MLAs who fashioned a brand new ruling alliance with the BJP in June 2022 get disqualified. After Shinde who? This query is on everybody’s thoughts. Will it’s Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis or Ajit Pawar, who’ve each been eyeing the submit for some time now?

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The upsurge of the Maratha quota subject has queered the pitch extra for the troika than for anyone else. The opposition, with Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray on the forefront, seized the chance, and the blame fell on Fadnavis who holds the Dwelling Affairs portfolio. The lathicharge couldn’t have occurred with out his information, they contended. Fadnavis apologised, and Shinde personally referred to as on Jarange-Patil in search of 40 days to fulfil his calls for, together with a very powerful one: issuing Kunbi caste certificates to all Marathas in order that they might partake within the quota meant for the Different Backward Courses (OBCs).

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde assembly Manoj Jarange-Patil, who was on a starvation strike for the demand of Maratha reservation, in Antarwali Sarati village of Jalna district, on September 14.
| Photograph Credit score:
PTI

Nonetheless, when Shinde did not ship on his promise, Jarange-Patil once more went on a quick on October 25, turning the screws tighter every week later with the announcement that he would cease consuming water till the demand was met. It was as if all hell broke unfastened. Over a dozen Marathas ended their lives whereas indignant mobs attacked the homes, workplaces, and autos of elected representatives.

Who’s Manoj Jarange-Patil?

Trying lean and haggard after his repeated fasts, Jarange-Patil appealed to his supporters to stay calm whereas he met with a authorities delegation. He ended the quick on November 2 however not earlier than warning the federal government to grant blanket reservation to all Marathas inside two months. If not, the “Marathas would present their energy on the borders of Mumbai like farmers did on the borders of Delhi in the course of the protest towards farm legal guidelines”, he threatened.

The unassuming farmer who belongs to the drought-prone Marathwada area mentioned he would quickly undertake a tour of the State. Simply two months in the past, Jarange-Patil was an unknown entity from Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district’s Ambad tehsil. He was often called the founding father of the little-known Shivba Sanghatana and is claimed to have offered his land of round two acres to fund its actions, primarily protests, over the previous 15 years.

His solely obvious declare to social standing is the honorific “Patil”, which hints at previous glory, of ancestors who have been village heads and served as the unique lynchpin of administration on the floor stage earlier than the arrival of democracy.

Point out his identify and most of the people are fast to level out that he’s a “fataka manus”, that means flat broke, who has solely a matriculation certificates. He’s initially from a village in Beed district however settled in Jalna district a few years in the past. Married with 4 kids, Jarange-Patil shouldn’t be concerned with any political celebration now, though he was district youth president for the Congress till 2004.

Through the years, he saved up a requirement for monetary compensation and jobs for the rapid kin of Maratha youths who died by suicide throughout reservation protests. However even at its peak in 2016, the Maratha quota agitation lacked a face. It’s that void that Jarange-Patil now seems to have crammed.

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Nearly all of his group members nonetheless wrestle to outlive as marginal farmers, particularly in drought-prone Marathwada. As one Maratha chief identified, only some hundred Maratha households are politically highly effective or profitable in enterprise or commerce.

Migrating to cities truly meant an extra drawback since they lacked schooling or important talent units, and so they ended up on the lowest finish of the socio-economic ladder. A survey by the Centre for the Examine of Creating Societies (CSDS) in 2014 discovered solely 3 per cent of wealthy Marathas among the many sampled households.

This was nothing new however clearly unacceptable to the Marathas even within the Nineteen Sixties when Panjabrao Deshmukh, a outstanding chief from the Vidarbha area who was Agriculture Minister within the first Cupboard of Jawaharlal Nehru, advised that “Marathas are firstly farmers, then warriors” and appealed to them to “overlook the sword” and “embrace the Kunbi id”. His proposal had few takers past Vidarbha, the place the group accepted its primarily agrarian background.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at an all-party assembly on Maratha reservation, in Mumbai on November 1.
| Photograph Credit score:
ANI

There have been those that held that the Marathas have been a landed caste with an ancestral hyperlink to the Sisodia Rajputs—so that they have been warriors not like the native Kunbi tillers. This speculation acquired widespread acceptance, significantly in western Maharashtra and Marathwada.

Lower to the twenty first century. Whereas many farmers in Vidarbha, Konkan, and north Maharashtra get the advantages of OBC reservation, their counterparts in west Maharashtra and Marathwada are within the lurch and struggling to show their “backwardness”. The scenario is especially grim in Marathwada, which is commonly within the information for all of the incorrect causes: frequent droughts, crop failures, and unrelieved poverty forcing folks emigrate. After all, there may be the uncommon heartening information when a Suraj Yengde turns into a scholar at Harvard or an Avinash Sable provides the Kenyans a run for his or her cash within the 3,000 metres steeplechase. However we’re speaking right here of the abnormal Marathas who proceed to stay off the land.

Jarange-Patil could also be hogging the media limelight in the mean time and the State’s high politicians lining up for an viewers with him, however will the main target final? There’s a feeling of despair, particularly for the reason that Maratha Kranti Morchas got here a cropper. The Supreme Court docket struck down the legislation offering reservation for Marathas because it exceeded the 50 per cent cap prescribed within the 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment. “There is no such thing as a case of extraordinary scenario for exceeding the ceiling restrict,” the court docket emphasised.

Recreation of brinkmanship

In all probability, this episode too may flip right into a sport of brinkmanship except Fadnavis convinces his celebration’s management to herald a constitutional modification that permits the 50 per cent cap to be bypassed. The opposite choice is likely to be for the Shinde authorities to file a assessment petition within the case.

That appears unlikely in the mean time, with the federal government’s future hanging by a thread. The Supreme Court docket has declined Narwekar’s proposal to increase the disqualifications case till the tip of February 2024, asking him to determine on the Shinde facet by December 31, and on the Ajit Pawar group by January 31.

Fadnavis did attempt to counter the sceptics by saying Shinde wouldn’t be disqualified. “Even when he will get disqualified, we are going to get him elected to the Legislative Council and he’ll retain the Chief Minister’s submit. The subsequent election goes to be contested below his management solely,” the Deputy Chief Minister instructed a Marathi information channel on October 29.

Fadnavis himself has been on the receiving finish of Maratha ire for the reason that police lathicharge. To make issues worse, his celebration’s official web site posted a video compilation of his choose statements in the course of the run-up to the 2019 Meeting election that included a clip of him repeatedly screaming, “Mi punha yein” (I’ll come again)—hinting at a comeback to the helm of the State. This evoked sharp reactions even from his allies because it got here on a day after Shinde and Fadnavis visited Delhi on October 26 amid the uncertainties over the chief ministership and the Maratha agitation.

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A piqued Fadnavis now alleged that his opponents have been focusing on him due to his caste. “Total Maharashtra is aware of I’m a Brahmin… and I can’t change my caste,” he mentioned. Jarange-Patil retaliated: “If he can’t change his caste, we Marathas can’t change ours both. Fadnavis is committing errors and that’s the reason he’s being focused. Fadnavis ought to chorus from discussing caste points.” Nonetheless, Jarange-Patil additionally mentioned the group had forgiven Fadnavis after his apology for the police motion, however he should now give quotas for Marathas.

The sharp trade maybe hints at Maharashtra’s politics touching a low level. A Marathi journalist mentioned: “Even when Sharad Pawar got here to satisfy Jarange-Patil, a mob raised provocative, insulting slogans, however he ignored them.” Curiously, however not surprisingly, the senior Pawar was among the many first to hurry to confabulate with the “fasting farmer” within the yard of a former confidant, the late Ankushrao Tope. His son, Rajesh Tope, the MLA from Ghansawangi and a former Maharashtra Well being Minister, continues be a key Pawar aide.

Lacking in motion

Within the ongoing political upheaval, the one actor lacking was Ajit Pawar. It was left to his faction chief Praful Patel to make clear that the Deputy Chief Minister was recognized with dengue and resting. The insurgent nephew went quiet quickly after the Shinde-Fadnavis go to to Delhi to talk to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Dwelling Minister Amit Shah. Ajit Pawar claimed to haven’t any information of the assembly. “They didn’t ask me,” he mentioned.

 Within the ongoing political upheaval, the one actor lacking was Ajit Pawar. He went quiet quickly after the Shinde-Fadnavis go to to Delhi to talk to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
| Photograph Credit score:
PTI

It was left to his mom, Ashatai Pawar, to spill the beans. “Ajit Pawar shouldn’t be nicely and feeling weak. He’s liked by the folks however who can foretell the longer term? All people desires [Ajit] dada to be the Chief Minister. I’m 86 years now. He ought to turn into the Chief Minister earlier than my eyes…. Let’s see,” she instructed mediapersons on November 5 after voting within the gram panchayat elections at their native Katewadi village in Baramati tehsil.

Nishikant Bhalerao, a senior journalist from Marathwada, believes the genie is out of the bottle though it’s tough to say who uncorked it. And, extra importantly, to say who will profit from the shenanigans of the previous few months. It could possibly be Shinde maybe. He has been in common contact with Jarange-Patil, visiting him at the very least 4 instances to this point. “Ever since their events cut up, there may be public sympathy in favour of Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray right here [in Marathwada]. However Shinde too is a Maratha,” Bhalerao mentioned.

Highlights

• In Maharashtra, a farmer named Manoj Jarange-Patil gained prominence by a starvation strike demanding reservation for Marathas, resulting in a big political upheaval.
• The police lathicharged Jarange-Patil’s supporters, triggering widespread protests. The incident has intensified energy struggles inside the State, probably jeopardiszing Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s place.
• The Maratha quota subject, coupled with the political turmoil, has created a fancy scenario, with Jarange-Patil rising as a big participant regardless of his humble background as a farmer with no political affiliation.

In keeping with Bhalerao, part of Jarange-Patil’s enchantment stems from the “anger and discontentment” amongst abnormal Kunbis towards the established Maratha households. “There’s a feeling that that is the ultimate battle. After this, nothing. There might be no future for our children,” he mentioned. However can Jarange-Patil pull it off? “He has an organisation, however it has neither a cadre nor a suppose tank. In the intervening time all people is dashing to be on his facet. However who is aware of what occurs tomorrow.”

The sport of cube is more likely to go on till the parliamentary election subsequent yr. Perhaps it’s a sport to fragment the formidable Marathas, who make up over 30 per cent of the State’s inhabitants. A cut up between Marathas and Kunbis may tilt the steadiness. “The 2024 Lok Sabha election would be the actual check,” Bhalerao mentioned. “In the meantime, Marathwada would be the testing floor. A colony for the reason that days of the Nizam, it has witnessed pitched caste battles prior to now, over renaming Marathwada College after Babasaheb Ambedkar, appointment of the primary Dalit Vice Chancellor, and so forth.”

For Maharashtra’s largest however least developed area, there appears no break from bleak political struggles. In actual fact, they solely appear to accentuate with time.

Anosh Malekar is an impartial journalist based mostly in Pune.