Marathas’ agitation for reservation has placed Shinde authorities in a bind

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

Something 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. Videos of the police motion went viral on social media, and the “fasting farmer” began pulling in large crowds, making him, almost in a single day, a drive to reckon with.

Manoj Jarange-Patil’s arrival comes at a vital juncture within the ongoing recreation of cube being performed out in Maharashtra’s seemingly endless energy struggles.

The proverbial sword of Damocles hangs over Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s head after the Supreme Court rebuked State Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar for delaying a choice 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 or not it’s Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis or Ajit Pawar, who’ve each been eyeing the put up for some time now?

Also Read | Andhra Pradesh hopes caste census will improve data-driven governance

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 Home 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 crucial one: issuing Kunbi caste certificates to all Marathas in order that they may partake within the quota meant for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

However, when Shinde didn’t 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 free. Over a dozen Marathas ended their lives whereas indignant mobs attacked the homes, workplaces, and autos of elected representatives.

Who is Manoj Jarange-Patil?

Looking 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 show their strength on the borders of Mumbai like farmers did on the borders of Delhi during the protest against farm laws”, he threatened.

The unassuming farmer who belongs to the drought-prone Marathwada area mentioned he would quickly undertake a tour of the State. Just two months in the past, Jarange-Patil was an unknown entity from Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district’s Ambad tehsil. He was referred to as the founding father of the little-known Shivba Sanghatana and is claimed to have bought 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 had been village heads and served as the unique lynchpin of administration on the floor stage earlier than the arrival of democracy.

Mention 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 is initially from a village in Beed district however settled in Jalna district many years in the past. Married with 4 youngsters, Jarange-Patil isn’t concerned with any political celebration now, though he was district youth president for the Congress till 2004.

Over the years, he stored up a requirement for monetary compensation and jobs for the instant kin of Maratha youths who died by suicide throughout reservation protests. But even at its peak in 2016, the Maratha quota agitation lacked a face. It is that void that Jarange-Patil now seems to have stuffed.

Also Read | Will the BJP implement the Rohini Commission report?

The majority of his group members nonetheless wrestle to outlive as marginal farmers, particularly in drought-prone Marathwada. As one Maratha chief identified, just a few hundred Maratha households are politically highly effective or profitable in business or commerce.

Migrating to cities truly meant an additional 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 Study of Developing 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 Sixties when Panjabrao Deshmukh, a outstanding chief from the Vidarbha area who was Agriculture Minister within the first Cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru, steered that “Marathas are firstly farmers, then warriors” and appealed to them to “forget the sword” and “embrace the Kunbi identity”. His proposal had few takers past Vidarbha, the place the group accepted its primarily agrarian background.

There had been those that held that the Marathas had been a landed caste with an ancestral hyperlink to the Sisodia Rajputs—so that they had been warriors in contrast to the native Kunbi tillers. This speculation obtained widespread acceptance, significantly in western Maharashtra and Marathwada.

Cut to the twenty first century. While 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 state of affairs is especially grim in Marathwada, which is usually within the information for all of the flawed causes: frequent droughts, crop failures, and unrelieved poverty forcing folks emigrate. Of course, there’s 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 money within the 3,000 metres steeplechase. But we’re speaking right here of the extraordinary Marathas who proceed to reside off the land.

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

Game of brinkmanship

In all chance, this episode too may flip right into a recreation of brinkmanship except Fadnavis convinces his celebration’s management to herald a constitutional modification that enables the 50 per cent cap to be bypassed. The different choice is perhaps for the Shinde authorities to file a evaluation petition within the case.

That appears unlikely in the intervening time, with the federal government’s future hanging by a thread. The Supreme Court 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 if he gets disqualified, we will get him elected to the Legislative Council and he will retain the Chief Minister’s post. The next election is going to be contested under his leadership only,” the Deputy Chief Minister informed a Marathi information channel on October 29.

Fadnavis himself has been on the receiving finish of Maratha ire because the police lathicharge. To make issues worse, his celebration’s official web site posted a video compilation of his choose statements throughout the run-up to the 2019 Assembly 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.

Also Read | Bihar’s caste survey can spark a brand new political consciousness 

A piqued Fadnavis now alleged that his opponents had been focusing on him due to his caste. “Entire Maharashtra knows I am a Brahmin… and I cannot change my caste,” he mentioned. Jarange-Patil retaliated: “If he cannot change his caste, we Marathas cannot change ours either. Fadnavis is committing mistakes and that is why he is being targeted. Fadnavis should refrain from discussing caste issues.” However, 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 change maybe hints at Maharashtra’s politics touching a low level. A Marathi journalist mentioned: “Even when Sharad Pawar came to meet Jarange-Patil, a mob raised provocative, insulting slogans, but 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 Health Minister, continues be a key Pawar aide.

Missing in motion

In the continued 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 identified with dengue and resting. The insurgent nephew went quiet quickly after the Shinde-Fadnavis go to to Delhi to consult with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Ajit Pawar claimed to don’t have any information of the assembly. “They did not ask me,” he mentioned.

It was left to his mom, Ashatai Pawar, to spill the beans. “Ajit Pawar is not well and feeling weak. He is loved by the people but who can foretell the future? Everybody wants [Ajit] dada to be the Chief Minister. I am 86 years now. He should become the Chief Minister before my eyes…. Let’s see,” she informed 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 might be Shinde maybe. He has been in common contact with Jarange-Patil, visiting him no less than 4 occasions up to now. “Ever since their parties split, there is public sympathy in favour of Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray here [in Marathwada]. But Shinde too is a Maratha,” Bhalerao mentioned.

According to Bhalerao, part of Jarange-Patil’s attraction stems from the “anger and discontentment” amongst extraordinary Kunbis in opposition to the established Maratha households. “There is a feeling that this is the final battle. After this, nothing. There will be no future for our kids,” he mentioned. But can Jarange-Patil pull it off? “He has an organisation, but it has neither a cadre nor a think tank. At the moment everybody is rushing to be on his side. But who knows what happens tomorrow.”

The recreation of cube is prone to go on till the parliamentary election subsequent yr. Maybe it’s a recreation 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 will be the real test,” Bhalerao mentioned. “Meanwhile, Marathwada will be the testing ground. A colony since the days of the Nizam, it has witnessed pitched caste battles in the past, over renaming Marathwada University after Babasaheb Ambedkar, appointment of the first Dalit Vice Chancellor, and so on.”

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

Anosh Malekar is an impartial journalist based mostly in Pune.