Maha govt starts building its case for Maratha quota

MUMBAI: Under pressure from the silent Maratha marches, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday moved to build a case for reservation for the community, holding

MUMBAI: Under pressure from the silent Maratha marches, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday moved to build a case for reservation for the community, holding an all-party meet to discuss strategy and hiring the best legal brains before the next hearing in the matter on October 13 in the Bombay high court.

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The government appointed leading lawyer Harish Salve to represent it in the high court and will send a formal communication to the Centre to release caste-based data from the 2011 census related to the Marathas in Maharashtra. Sources told HT that within two days, the government would also file a charge sheet on the rape and murder of the teen at Kopardi, in Ahmednagar district, that triggered the silent Maratha protests.

“The CM will write to the Centre to get specific caste census data on the Maratha community. This data will be sent for analysis to the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune. We believe it will help us show that the community is economically backward with a majority of them small and marginal farmers besides mathadis (headload workers). We have pulled out data from archives to show their social backwardness,” said Vinod Tawde, state education minister and a Maratha leader, who is heading a ministerial panel to strengthen the state’s case on reservation.

The all-party meet was held at ‘Varsha’, official residence of the chief minister. It was held just a day after Devendra Fadnavis held a special cabinet meeting in Aurangabad in Marathwada and announced a Rs49,000-crore package for the region, dominated by the Marathas.

The government in its affidavit to be filed in the high court on October will lay down its arguments in favour of 16 per cent reservation for Marathas.

“We will explain why the community needs reservation. The affidavit will address all the questions raised by the high court,” said Eknath Shinde, PWD minister, who participated in the meet as a representative from the Shiv Sena, a ruling ally.

“The landholdings of people from the Maratha community have become fragmented over the years and the land utility has declined. In addition, irregularities in rainfall have impacted this community the most; a large number of farmers committing suicide are from the Marathwada region,” said Tawde.

According to sources, the state archives directorate has provided some documentary evidence that Marathas are socially backward. This includes literature of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and also the government gazettes of the early 20th century when Shahuji Maharaj was the ruler of Kolhapur. The department has also retrieved some of the speeches of the time.

The BJP at its state executive meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday passed a resolution supporting reservation for Marathas. State party president, Raosaheb Danve, said reservation for Marathas in government jobs and education had always been on the BJP’s agenda. “We are for Maratha reservations without affecting any other community’s quota. All opposition parties should talk to the government and discuss all points and evidence required to prove our stand in court. The chief minister has declared that a group of leaders will visit every district and seek the views of the locals and public representatives there,” Danve said.

Fadnavis, for his part, told BJP workers that the Maratha protests were in no way targeted at the BJP government but were aimed more against the established Maratha politicians from Congress-NCP. He also told party workers that he had enough material to blunt the Opposition’s attack, an oblique reference possibly to the ongoing irrigation probe against NCP leaders Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare.