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Mumbai: With the Maharashtra government releasing the draft reservation regulations, the long-running Maratha struggle has come to an end. In Navi Mumbai, protesters staged a jubilant demonstration. Maratha leader Manoj Jaranke Patil said the strike will end with the publication of the draft. The government brings in a new law for reservation for Marathas. The design was recently handed over to Manoj Jaranke Patil.
Reservation has been a long-standing demand of the Maratha community. Governments have taken steps to grant reservations in the past but nothing has worked. The biggest problem that the BJP-controlled Eknath Shinde government faced was the need for reservation for the Marathas. The Maratha issue came to a head as the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were around the corner.
Marathas are described as farmers and sons of the soil. They have large agricultural lands as farming is their livelihood. Most of them speak the Marathi language. A third of Maharashtra’s population are Marathas. Of the 20 chief ministers since 1960, 12 have been from the Maratha community. The current chief minister Eknath Shinde is also a member of the Maratha community. The community has been in major crisis for some time due to the collapse of agriculture. Of late, the community has been in a very backward situation due to increasing protests. If reservation is implemented, they will have more representation in educational institutions, government offices, etc.
In 2016, the Maratha reservation issue started burning again. Marathas organized a huge rally at Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad) to protest against the rape and murder of a teenage girl in Kopardi village. After the mourning rally in black attire, the leaders handed over a petition to the collector. The demands in the petition were to arrest the culprits of Kopardi’s murder, ensure higher wages for farmers as per the Swaminathan Commission report, write off farmers’ debts and introduce Maratha reservation. Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM) also organized 58 rallies in different districts. The demand for Maratha reservations became strong again. Fighting broke out in many places.
The state government announced reservation in 2018 after a nationwide agitation, but it was quashed by the Supreme Court. In May 2021, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the Maratha community was neither socially nor educationally backward and that reservations were unconstitutional. An application for review was filed in April 2023, but this was also rejected by the court.
English summary:
Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil ends protest as Shinde government responds with draft ordinance
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