JOIN USMaratha Morchas: message loud and clear
The silent, leader-less protests and rallies, known as the Maratha Kranti Morchas, over a span of one year have shown one thing: when it comes to the community, everyone is united. The Marathas have sent out the message loud and clear.
From August 9, 2016 to August 9, 2017, a total of 58 such rallies were held across Maharashtra and elsewhere, and they have been totally peaceful and incident-free, which in itself is a record of sorts and something worth emulating by every group that wants to make its voice heard, stage a protest.
The last rally in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra and the financial hub of India, was literally a show of strength when lakhs of people of the Maratha community – men and women, young and old, of different financial backgrounds, commoners and the elite – rubbed shoulders to highlight their 15-point charter of demands, in which a reservation quota for the community figures at the top. Besides, political parties and associations, cutting across party lines, have supported the demand for reservation for the community.
The Mumbai rally was historic in nature as it coincided with the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement, when Mahatma Gandhi gave the clarion call of ‘do or die’, and the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence.
On August 9, as at rallies before, the slogans ‘Ek Maratha, Lakh Maratha’ and ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ki Jai’ had rent the air as the community tabled their demands peacefully at multiple locations.
The Mumbai rally forced Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to accede to about half a dozen demands, but the main demand of reservations remains unfulfilled as it is now before courts -- although the Maharashtra legislature and the entire political class favours reservation for the Maratha community.
The Marathas account for 32-35% of Maharashtra’s population, and quite a significant percentage of this are economically and financially weak. The Maratha caste can be compared with Jats in Rajasthan and Haryana or Patidar-Patels in Gujarat, primarily farmers — and these groups are pressing for reservations, too.
The big advantage of the Maratha community is that it is politically strong and has sent the maximum number of representatives to the law-making bodies and the maximum number of chief ministers of the state, including Yashwantrao Chavan, Vasantdada Patil, Sharad Pawar, Shankarrao Chavan and his son Ashok Chavan, and Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Besides reservations, the second strong demand is amending the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 – popularly known as the Atrocities Act – which the community feels is often misused against them. However, so far, no amendments have been proposed.
The previous Congress-NCP Democratic Front government, then headed by Congress’ Prithviraj Chavan, approved and announced a proposal to reserve 16% of government jobs and seats in educational institutions for the Maratha community, but the Bombay High Court struck it down, and moving the Supreme Court did not yield any result.
The matter is still before the Bombay High Court, which has asked for a report from the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission, on an affidavit filed by the state government justifying the ground for reservations to the Marathas.
The previous government had, in fact, set up a committee headed by then industries minister Narayan Rane, a former chief minister himself and a prominent Maratha leader, to table a report. Unsurprisingly, it recommended reservations for the community.
Strangely enough, the trigger for the Maratha Kranti Morchas was not an issue with direct economic consequences but the July 13, 2016, rape and brutal murder of a teenage Maratha girl in Kopardi in Ahmednagar district. Three Dalit men have been arrested for the crime, and the Maratha community has been demanding the death sentence for the accused.
On August 9 last year, several Maratha organisations came together under the banner of Sakal Maratha Samaj and held the first silent march in Aurangabad.
Since then, 58 Maratha morchas (silent processions, some bike rallies) have been held across Maharashtra, New Delhi, Belgaum and Bidar in Karnataka, Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Daman in the Union Territory of Daman and Diu, and Hyderabad in Telangana. Besides, symbolic rallies were also held in New York City, St Petersburg and Dubai.
Arm-twisted, peacefully
Mobilisation was done through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, and lakhs of volunteers joined in. They set up control rooms and war rooms to get in touch with the maximum number of people from the community and pursue them to join the agitation and ensured that political parties did not hijack the agitation and the mission.
The strong point of the rallies is that a large number of women and the Maratha youth marched shoulder to shoulder with men. There was no one face of the agitation, no one leader who could be thwarted to disrupt the protests. Instead, they all together have been the face of the agitation.
The chief minister’s announcement that the government would raise the upper limit of household income to be classified as Economically Backward Class (EBC) to Rs 6 lakh and that the government would pay 50% of the fees for students from such households to pursue professional courses has come as some relief to the community. The chief minister also assured the protesters that the forts of the Maratha-era would be protected. Besides, the much-awaited grand statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the great Maratha warrior king, would be fast-tracked.
In fact, the grand function of jal-poojan and bhoomi-poojan was performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 24, 2016, but the actual work to erect the statue is yet to begin.
As regards loan waiver, the government had announced the Rs. 34,000 crore Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana, besides expressing commitment to implement the report of the M S Swaminathan Commission on minimum support price (MSP) for farmers.
The ‘one-year-58-morchas’ has clearly had several plusses. Firstly, the angst of the Maratha community has been conveyed to the powers that be. Secondly, the legislature, executive and judiciary has been activated on their demands.
Third, it has shown how a rally can be sustained and be peaceful. In fact, the rallies have now taken the shape of a Maratha movement of sorts.