It doesn't matter: Jarange-Patil demands Maratha quota under OBC category

Manoj Jarange said he would wait and see if the state government converts its draft notification on 'blood relatives' of Kunbi Marathas into law and then decide on the course of his agitation.

Mumbai: Hardening its stance after the Maharashtra legislature passed a bill proposing a 10 per cent reservation quota for the Marathas, Jalna-based campaigner Manoj Jarange-Patil on Tuesday said that the reservation has to be under the 'Other Backward Classes' as this separate quota would breach the 50 per cent cap of the Supreme Court.

In the past six months, Jarange-Patil has emerged as the face of the Maratha reservation campaign.

Jarange-Patil, who is currently into the 11th day of his fourth hunger-strike, and camping in his village Antarwali Sarathi in Ambad tehsil of Jalna, would take a call on the future course of agitation on Wednesday.

“It absolutely does not matter whether the government gives 10 per cent or 20 per cent reservation. Outside the bracket of OBC category, a reservation would be a challenge as it would breach the 50 per cent cap set by the Supreme Court,” Jarange-Patil told reporters.

According to him, the best option is to give reservation on the basis of records related to Kunbi Maratha and Maratha Kunbi in historical documents.

Kunbis form a sub-caste of the Maratha and covered under OBCs. Thus the certificates would enable them to get reservation in jobs and education. The OBCs fear the potential loss of benefits.

“The government is not giving us what we have been demanding. We want a reservation in the OBC category, but they are giving us a separate quota instead,” he said, wanting to know by then the draft notification which defined ‘sage-soyare’ — a Marathi term for ‘relatives from the family tree — would be converted into a law.

"If the government doesn't discuss and implement the draft notification on the reservation for blood relatives of Kunbi Marathas, we will decide on the course of the agitation,” said Jarange-Patil, the founder of Shivba Sanghatana.

The existing reservation quotas in Maharashtra are Scheduled Castes - 13 per cent, Scheduled Tribes - 7 per cent, Other Backward Classes - 19 per cent, Special Backward Classes - 2 per cent, Vimukta Jati - 3 per cent, Nomadic Tribes (B) - 2.5 per cent, Nomadic Tribes (C) - 3.5 per cent, Nomadic Tribes (D) - 2 per cent. The total equals to 52 per cent. The reservation for Marathas would take the total reservation of Maharashtra to 62 per cent.