Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said the Maha Vikas Aghadi government will do everything in its power to ensure that the Maratha community gets justice, but it will not tolerate the politicisation of the reservation issue.
“This government has been sincere on this issue and will not back down even for a moment to demand and secure justice for the Maratha community. This is a fight in which all of us are together. We will do everything we can to ensure that the apex court upholds the quota for the Maratha community. In this regard, we will take into account the suggestions of all concerned. Opposition leaders, too, will be briefed on the matter,” said Mr. Thackeray at a meeting via video-conferencing with Maratha outfits.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the implementation of the Maratha quota law granting reservation to the community in education and public employment. While stating that his government desperately wished to resolve the issue, Mr. Thackeray said it would, however, not tolerate those who tried to incite the Maratha community for political mileage.
State Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan, who heads the Cabinet sub-committee on the Maratha reservation issue, said the government is mulling options to move an application in the Supreme Court to vacate its interim stay order. While terming the Supreme Court’s ruling as “unexpected, astonishing and surprising”, Mr. Chavan said it was not impossible to get the apex court to reverse its decision and urged Maratha outfits to show restraint. by not resorting to street protests. “I appeal to the Maratha outfits and community leaders to exercise restraint as this is a legal battle which needs to be fought through legal means… It is pointless to agitate in the streets,” he said.
However, the State government was censured by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for failing to convince the Supreme Court to uphold the Maratha quota law. Leader of Opposition and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said Mr. Thackeray’s government had failed in effectively defending Maratha reservation before the Supreme Court.
He said, “The government has fallen short in its efforts… While I do not want to play politics, this government should have focused more on the legal aspects of the matter. It should take a lesson from the court’s ruling to prepare better.” He added that approaching the Chief Justice of India (Sharad Bobde) was now the only option left with the State in order to vacate the stay.
BJP State president Chandrakant Patil said the government had “lost the match in the Maratha reservation issue in the final ball”. “The State government has proved unsuccessful in convincing the Supreme Court. Our government [erstwhile BJP-led government] had fought for 90 long days to ensure that the quota bill endured in the Bombay High Court,” Mr. Patil said. BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Satara, Udayanraje Bhosale, urged the State government to promulgate an ordinance to provide reservation to the Maratha community.
It was the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government which had helped get the Maratha quota bill passed in the Maharashtra Legislature in 2018, thus pacifying the restive community whose 58 muk morchas (silent rallies) had shaken Maharashtra in their sweep and magnitude throughout 2016. The BJP MLA from Satara, Shivendraraje Bhosale, threatened the government that he would take to the streets if the State government failed to convince the apex court to uphold the Maratha quota law.
Meanwhile, despite calls for restraint by the Chief Minister, the State simmered with intimations of protest by some Maratha outfits as well as the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Representatives of the Akhil Bhartiya Maratha Mahasangh staged a protest in Jalna outside the District Collector’s office, while activists of the Maratha Kranti Morcha demonstrated in Solapur.
A State-level meeting of the Maratha Kranti Morcha held in Mumbai said the direction of their agitation would be be decided in district-level meetings to be held on Sunday