mThe work of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC), to determine the social and educational status of different communities, as a first step towards fulfilling the Maratha reservation demand, is officially halted now.
The likely delay in the panel’s work coincides with increasing pressure by Maratha quota activists for reservation for the community. The leader of the protests, Manoj Jarange-Patil, who has given the government the deadline of December 24 to bring in reservation, is touring the state to rustle up support for the demand.
On Tuesday, Jarange-Patil, whose health has taken a beating over several hunger protests on the issue, was hospitalised.
An official of the state OBC Welfare Department said the government will appoint a new MSBCC chairperson at the earliest to ensure that the work on collecting empirical data on Marathas is not delayed.
However, Opposition parties have taken on the Shinde Sena-BJP-Ajit Pawar NCP government, accusing it of “hiding” Nirgude’s resignation, even as the Winter Session of the Assembly is on.
Leader of the Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar of the Congress recently raised the issue inside the Assembly. Lok Sabha MP and Sharad Pawar NCP leader Supriya Sule accused the state government of not being serious about granting reservation to the Marathas as it had been “neglecting” complaints from the MSBCC.
While Justice (retd) Nirgude resigned from the post on December 4, the state government conveyed to the member secretary of the commission on December 9 that his resignation has been accepted.
Earlier, Balaji Killarikar, one of the two members of the commission who resigned, told The Indian Express that there was interference from the government in the working of the panel and differences with it over the selection of communities to be surveyed.
“Our opinion was that a survey of all communities, including OBCs, SCs and STs be done, as the results would be used to compare with that of the Marathas. The Supreme Court too had sought comparative data. Surveying only Marathas would not have given comparative data, and the Supreme Court would have again rejected the details,” Killarikar said.
He added that there were divisions within the government at the top on the issue, with CM Shinde ready to conduct a large-scale survey of communities, but Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis not in favour.
While Shinde is a Maratha, BJP leader Fadnavis is a Brahmin and has faced protests by Marathas who see him as opposed to the quota.
On Tuesday, Killarikar claimed that the government demanded that the affidavits to be submitted in various quota-related cases in the Bombay High Court, which were finalised by the commission, should be checked by the Advocate General and the state. “It said that nothing should be mentioned in the affidavit that will land the government in trouble,” Killarikar told reporters, as per PTI.
Fadnavis lashed out at Killarikar, calling his claims “politically motivated”. Speaking Tuesday on resignations by the members of the panel, he said some of them had been given a “supari (contract)” by their political masters to delay Maratha reservation.
Speaking in Nagpur, where the Winter Session of the Assembly is on, he said: “Three political parties had appointed their workers as members of the commission. Researchers were to be made members of the MSBCC. When we (BJP-Shiv Sena) were in power (2014-19), we didn’t appoint any political workers but researchers.”
According to sources within the commission, the MSBCC was all set to “undertake the massive exercise of collecting data from every Maratha household in the state” and had prepared a questionnaire for the same.