The angry Maratha
A standard complaint is that Maratha leaders looked after themselves but failed the community.
Ranked in stoic, disapproving silence, hundreds of thousands of Marathas have been taking to the streets for weeks now in protest at what they see to be government indifference to their plight, to the diminishing of their once considerable political and financial influence. These rallies and shows of solidarity were catalysed by the rape and murder in July of a teenage Maratha girl in Kopardi village, in Ahmednagar district. Three young Dalit boys were arrested in connection with it, but the cracks in an already complicated caste relationship had been ripped open. The breach may have become a chasm with the latest incident of attempted rape at Talegaon near Nashik on October 7. The Maratha community torched several trucks and blocked the Nashik-Mumbai highway for six hours after police arrested a teenage Dalit boy for the attempted rape of a five-year-old Maratha girl.
Considered dominant within Maharashtra, the Marathas now argue that for too long the success of a limited number of families was taken to represent the success of the entire community. Two years ago, a committee headed by Narayan Rane, Congress leader and former Shiv Sena chief minister, submitted a report providing evidence of the Marathas' problems. Marathas make up some 34 per cent of the state's population but account for only 15 per cent of government employees. Only 12 per cent of those enrolled in higher education and in technical institutes are Maratha, but 36 per cent of farmers who have committed suicide are from the community.
"I have found," says Rane, a Maratha himself, "that Marathas are mostly farmers and labourers who work on the employment guarantee scheme. Their economic condition is pathetic. Maratha students are poor and often don't have the money to complete their education and, in the absence of good qualifications, struggle to get good jobs." The Rane committee recommended that the Marathas receive 16 per cent reservation in education and in government jobs. In July 2014, a Congress-NCP government had put such a reservation policy into motion only for the Bombay High Court to stay the order in November. The Marathas, the court suggested, were a socially advanced and prestigious community that had no need for reservations. Devendra Fadnavis, of the BJP, had just taken office as the state's new chief minister then. The issue of Maratha reservations became his headache.
The court based its observations on reports of three commissions (1990 to 2008), that confirmed that the Marathas could not be considered backward. In December 2014, the Fadnavis government passed a bill granting Marathas reservations which was again stayed by the HC in April 2015, on the grounds that the state could not exceed the Supreme Court-mandated cap of 50 per cent. This is a 1992 decision that certain states, including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra itself, do not follow, devoting larger chunks of the pie to reservations. Petitions continue to be heard, with the HC encouraging submission of arguments by October 13.
Many in the Maratha community are suspicious of the CM's intent too. Some even allege that Fadnavis, a Brahmin, is displaying his own caste biases. Rane suggests that constitutional amendments could allow Maharashtra to exceed the 50 per cent cap. "If Tamil Nadu can have 68 per cent reservation," he asks, "why not Maharashtra?" The answer, he suggests, lies in a lack of political will: "The HC stayed the order because the government did not submit my committee's findings before them. The government doesn't really want reservations for the Marathas."
State minister for higher education Vinod Tawde, who heads the Maratha reservations committee, says Rane should blame the Congress-NCP ("his own government") for not submitting his findings in court. "Our government," Tawde insists, "is working hard to prove that Marathas are socially and economically backward." Politicians such as Tawde and Rane, though, have been caught flatfooted by the strength of the Maratha protests.
The huge turnouts have been widely touted as leaderless, and the main parties are scrambling to appear onside. Recently, Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena president and editor of party mouthpiece Saamna, apologised for a cartoon that appeared in the paper mocking the protests. The apology was unprecedented, and an indication of the strength of feeling created by the movement, the so-called Maratha Kranti Morcha. Some of the Sena's own Maratha leaders considered resigning in protest, while isolated stone-pelting attacks were launched at the paper's press and offices.
Reservations are not the only demand of the marchers. Many also want the so-called 'Atrocities Act', the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, scrapped. The allegation is that Dalits and OBCs are using the act to get Marathas falsely arrested. Purushottam Khedekar, founder of organisations like the Maratha Seva Sangh, claims that "almost 90 per cent of those booked under the Act are Maratha. It has become a tool for revenge". Nanabhau Patole, a BJP MP from Bhadara-Gondiya, says he has "statistics from the Union home ministry that show that 95 per cent of cases registered under the Atrocities Act are with mala fide intent".
If these seem like outlandish claims, it is because they stand with figures showing that only one per cent of all FIRs are filed by Dalits and OBCs, who make up 27 per cent of the population. Further, only 40 per cent of those claims were registered under the Atrocities Act and the fact that hardly any convictions are achieved could be attributed to investigative apathy as easily as to the filing of false claims. Dalit leaders, including Ramdas Athawale, the Union minister of state for social justice, have come out against any amendments to the act. Indeed, Maratha mobilisation may be inspiring Dalits and OBCs to mobilise themselves. Recently, in Nashik, some four lakh supporters of disgraced OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal-in jail since March on a money-laundering charge-turned out to protest his being held without bail. As much as it was a show of Bhujbal's enduring popularity, observers said it was a show of OBC willingness to defend their interests in the face of Maratha demands.
Still, the state is listening to Maratha complaints. The Maharashtra government has proposed a number of changes in procedure once a charge has been made under the Atrocities Act. Now, a person booked under it for severe crimes like molestation is required to approach the high court to secure bail, a process that often drags for over two months. The state government wants bail hearings in the district court so that the process is quicker, and for relatively minor crimes, such as abuse, the state suggests bail be secured within a week. Many within the government believe shortening the time spent in jail by individuals newly accused of crimes under the Atrocities Act will help soothe Maratha anger.
Animosity over the Atrocities Act or towards high-caste leaders cannot mask the disgust Marathas feel towards their own leaders. The community traditionally controlled the cooperative sugar mills, milk federations, ginning mills, rural banks and market yards, allowing them to reign over Maharashtra's rural economy. It was the basis for much of the community's economic confidence. But the rural economy has been suffering for a decade, the cooperative sector is collapsing, many of the mills are running losses and the banks are unable to compete with the private ones opening branches in the hinterlands.
A standard complaint is that Maratha leaders looked after themselves but failed the community. In Latur, for instance, when the city faced unparalleled water shortages, the powerful Deshmukh family appeared more interested in using large quantities of water to keep their sugar mills running than in ensuring people had enough to drink. The already low levels of groundwater dipped even further. Dileep Deshmukh, brother of the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, an ex-CM, argues that the sugar mills keep the economy alive: "They generate an economy of Rs 1,700 crore a year in the district. We could not afford to lose that business and help only the farmers."
Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dr B.R. Ambedkar and a former MP, also holds the Maratha leaders responsible. "The benefits of power were not shared. Some 169 families controlled the cooperative sectors, and while they became rich, everyone else suffered." Prakash Pawar, a political science professor at Kolhapur University, says much the same. "It is true, the vast numbers turning out for the rallies indicate just how much they feel let down by their own establishment," he says.
Maratha strongman and NCP president Sharad Pawar is the target of many complaints. Farmer suicides were at their highest in a decade when Pawar was Union agriculture minister. On an average, 3,600 farmers killed themselves in the state every year between 2004 and 2013. And while the NCP heaps praise on Pawar for waiving farmers' debts to the tune of Rs 70,000 crore, only farmers with big holdings benefitted. "Pawar gives the impression that he knows all the answers," says MNS chief Raj Thackeray, "so then why did he not take appropriate action when farmers were killing themselves?"
The Maratha agitation, coupled with the effects it could have on Dalits and OBCs, not to mention the chronic anti-Brahmin sentiment in the region, could set the stage for considerable caste conflict. The OBCs worry that the government might cut their share to accommodate the Maratha demands, while the Brahmins, who make up only three per cent of the population, are already wary. Maratha organisations are often accused of harbouring anti-Brahmin sentiments. Last year, the state's highest civilian award- Maharashtra Bhushan-was conferred on nonagenarian Brahmin writer Babasaheb Purandare. Maratha organisations opposed this, with some even alleging he was to blame for US scholar James Laine's book on Shivaji, which was banned in the state in the wake of violent protests.
"Giving the Maharashtra Bhushan to Purandare was like rubbing salt on our wounds," says Sudhir Dhone, Congress leader and a founder member of the Maratha Seva Sangh. "We are not against Brahmins. In the last 15 years, some seven Brahmins have received this award, but we are against conferring prestige on the wrong person", he says. Khedekar, though, is a known provocateur, arguing in his book, Shivrayanchya Badnamichi Kendre (The Centres Who Defamed Shivaji), that Brahmins are the only enemies of the non-Brahmin. He has written that the country can only prosper when Brahmins are killed off. Given his prominence in the agitation, the Brahmins too feel insecure, so much so they have a conclave of their own scheduled for November.
Fadnavis, whose future depends on how he handles this crisis, is scrambling to contain the damage. He has announced aid of Rs 200 crore to the Annasaheb Patil Arthik Vikas Mahamandal, a body which works to uplift mathadi (head-load) workers, most of whom are Marathas. Fadnavis is also reviewing the progress of a proposed memorial to Shivaji's mother in her birthplace, Sindkhedraja, in the Buldhana district. Khedekar has been appointed head of the committee.
But when a movement is spontaneous and leaderless, and suspicious of politicians, it may take more than political tactics and gestures to contain it. If Fadnavis fails to cool Maratha tempers, the failure of his tenure will be the least of Maharashtra's concerns.
"Fadnavis is too casual on the Maratha issue"
Maharashtra Congress president and ex-Cm Ashok Chavan is leading the Opposition attack on the BJP government over the Maratha issue. Excerpts from an interview:
Why are you backing the Maratha agitation?
The community's poorer sections are in crisis. Back-to-back droughts and the resultant farm losses have made their life miserable. There are no job opportunities for them. There is no industrialisation outside Mumbai and Pune. The Maratha youth are out on the street because there's a sense of uncertainty to their life today.
The HC has struck down quotas for the Marathas. Why are you blaming the government for this?
The government can give reservations, although within the legal frame it will need amendments to the Constitution. But if they can do it for clearing the GST (Goods and Services Tax) Bill, they can do it for this cause too. If there are legal hurdles, they should be removed. The government should take everyone into confidence.
Could Fadnavis have handled the issue better?
This government is too casual, they are not sensitive to the issue. They don't listen, even to the Opposition.
What are your problems with the government's functioning?
They have released almost Rs 4,000 crore as aid to the farmers. Instead of that, if they had written off the farmers' loan (estimated Rs 25,000 crore) it would have benefitted the farmers more. The government is paying off the moneylenders to make farmers debt-free but not taking into account their real woes.
Do you support the demand for abolishing the Atrocities Act?
We are not demanding that it be abolished, but we are against its misuse. There should be stringent checks on any atrocities being committed, but the act should not be misused.
The BJP too has backed the marches. Do you think it will work in its favour?
The BJP is in power now, they should act instead of joining the marches. They are just trying to save their skin. The CM is there to work, not to make emotional appeals. Why does he want sympathy?
What would be a logical end to the agitation?
A decision on their demands is the only logical end.