'How Can Marathas Demand Reservations?'

'Over the last 65 years the state has seen majority of Maratha chief ministers and cabinet ministers, even Union ministers.'
'The Marathas have always wielded disproportionately significant political, commercial and social influence in the state and yet they are asking for reservations today.'

Prakash (Anna) Shivajirao Shendge -- a former Bharatiya Janata MLA from Jath constituency in Maharashtra's Sangli district -- is emerging as an influential OBC leader organising huge OBC rallies in the state.

Many commentators claim that Shendge is being used as a counter against Maratha leader Manoj Jarange Patil's similarly crowded rallies in support of reservations for the community in government jobs and educational institutions.

In this interview with Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com, Shendge, who organised an OBC rally -- attended by an estimated 500,000 people -- in Jarange Patil's backyard in Jalna's Ambad taluka -- the latter rose to fame during his hunger strike at Antarwali Sarate village in the same taluka -- articulates his opposition to the Maratha reservations which he believes will be like usurping the interests of the OBC community in the state.

With his next rally scheduled for November 26 in Hingoli district, the 64-year old BJP leader dares the Maratha community to defeat Maharashtra Minister and influential OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal after he opposed quotas for Marathas.

"There are 60 per cent OBCs in majority of constituencies from where the Maratha MLAs get elected. We have already warned them about the consequences the Maratha MLA-aspirants will face if they target Bhujbal," Shendge says emphasising that the OBCs are ready for a political tit-for-tat with the Marathas if they carry out their threat of defeating Bhujbal.

What is the purpose of organising OBC meetings, first in Ambad in Jalgaon and now on November 26 at Hingoli?

We have to showcase the strength of the OBCs to this government which went on its knees to appease (Manoj) Jarange Patil and his pressure tactics. He organised huge rallies of Marathas across Maharashtra and that sort of also put pressure on the poorer OBCs in Maharashtra who now fear that this government could compromise their quota interests.

These demonstrators even indulged in arson and burnt the homes of MLAs and homes, hotels, cars and offices of many OBC leaders and workers. That has further scared the poor OBCs in the state. This has led to an environment of terror among our people. Owing to these factors, the poor OBCs were living under tremendous fear.

To get the OBCs out of this terror phase and put pressure on the state government to not compromise the interests of the OBCs it became imperative that we organise such rallies across the state.

We wanted to show it to them (the Marathas and the state government) that if, despite being just 32 per cent of the state's population, you (the Marathas) can use such pressure tactics, then the OBCs make up for 60 per cent of the state's population and we too can indulge in organising our people.

Why are you opposed to the reservations for the Marathas in government jobs and education institutions?

The basic problem is that Jarange Patil is now demanding the Maratha caste to be given caste certificates as Kunbis (a community that comes under the OBC umbrella). That would bring in more shareholders trying to eat into a pie, whose size would not increase proportionately, thereby affecting the 60 per cent OBCs, who are already demanding their share in the same pie.

Naturally, the OBC community will be opposed to such an arrangement.

With a population of over 60 per cent, which includes 374 OBC castes, we are already starving for reservations and with just 32 per cent population if Marathas are demanding share in the same pie, what will the OBCs be left with?

You must also consider that ever since Maharashtra became a state, most of the chief ministers have been from the Maratha community, and they also happen to be the biggest landholders in the state with significant interests in the cooperative and education sector.

How can such a community demand reservations under the umbrella of other backward classes? They have always been doing dadagiri on others in Maharashtra and now he (Jarange Patil) openly dares the state government with the chief minister and his ministers mollycoddling him.

If they can make you bend on your knees by organising huge rallies, we too can organise our rallies and show our strength.

When you use this language, aren't you also using the same threatening tone that you accuse Manoj Jarange Patil of?

We are on the defensive. We are not attacking. We (the OBCs) are trying to shield our interests from the attack by others (the Marathas).

We are not forcing the government to give us the reservations meant for other sections of society; we have never thrown even a small stone to hurt anybody. We have not indulged in arson and burnt homes, cars, offices and properties of anybody.

We are only requesting this government with folded hands that they should increase the size of the pie instead of distributing the same pie among more stakeholders.

Devendra Fadnavis, when he was chief minister, had increased the size of the pie and we had no problem with that. But this arrangement couldn't stand the scrutiny of the Supreme Court and hence it was struck down. Is it the fault of the OBCs that Fadnavis couldn't make for a Constitution-proof arrangement to give reservations to the Marathas?

The proponents of quotas for Marathas try to justify their demand by saying that Maratha farmers have started dying by suicide and have become impoverished in the state over the years. Shouldn't they ask themselves first who drove the Marathas to such pitiable condition?

Over the last 65 years the state has seen majority of Maratha chief ministers and cabinet ministers, even Union ministers. The Marathas have always wielded disproportionately significant political, commercial and social influence in the state and yet they are asking for reservations today.

Are the OBCs responsible for this state of the Marathas? It is the failure of the governments over the years. It is the failure of the Maratha leadership over the years and you want to punish the OBC community for this failure.

Despite the opposition from other sections of the society, the Marathas have now become more vocal about their demand for reservations after Manoj Jarange Patil took the path of hunger strike for getting their demand fulfilled?

In fact, the Maratha community is already getting reservations under the EWS (Economically Weaker Section) quota which is Constitutionally mandated. They already enjoy reservations under the 10 per cent EWS quota in government jobs and education in Maharashtra under this category.

We don't have any problems if, like Bihar (the Bihar government, on November 9, passed a bill that increased the caste0based quota to 65 per cent from 50 per cent, thereby raising the overall quota limit to 75 per cent, which includes 10 per cent quota under the EWScategory), the Maharashtra government also makes amends to increase the caste-based quota size to 65 per cent from the existing 50 per cent and then give reservations to the Marathas.

Shouldn't the Marathas launch agitations to put pressure on the Union government and state government to hike the quota limit from 50 per cent to 65 per cent?

The Marathas are trying to usurp quotas belonging to other OBCs too.

Which are these communities you are referring to?

The Marathas say they make up for 32 per cent of the state's population but let me explain that these 32 per cent include Kunbi, Kunbi-Marathas, Maratha Kunbis, Leuva Patil, Leuva Patidar and Marathas.

If you remove all other castes from the Maratha community then the Marathas constitute just 10 to 12 per cent of the state's population.

So, you are not 32 per cent, you are just 10 to 12 per cent of the population. I think for these 10 to 12 per cent, the quota under the EWS category is not just enough but more than enough.

Even in this condition if you want more reservations then go ahead and fight the state government, the Union government for doing what Bihar has done. But you just want to take away what belongs to the OBCs.

Chhatrapati Sambhaji, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP, is organising a meet of the OBC and Maratha leaders from the state. Would you be also part of this meet?

Nobody (no OBC leader) is going for this meeting. They have got only Haribhau Rathod on their side and he has been always campaigning for merging the Maratha and Kunbis together as one caste.

But Haribhau is not an OBC leader; we OBCs have abandoned him for his anti-OBC stance.

There are also discussions among the Marathas and they have threatened to ensure that Chhagan Bhujbal (an influential OBC leader belonging to the Mali [gardener] community hailing from Maharashtra's Nashik district; once a close confidant of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, he switched allegiance to Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar when he joined the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis earlier this year) will be defeated in the next assembly election.

If they can ensure defeat of one OBC leader then we dared them during our Ambad rally that if they can defeat Chhagan Bhujbal owing to their numerical strength then we too have the numbers to defeat 160 Maratha MLAs of Maharashtra.

There are 60 per cent OBCs in a majority of constituencies from where the Maratha MLAs get elected. We have already warned them about the consequences Maratha MLA-aspirants will face if they target Bhujbal.