What Maharashtra is witnessing right now is an unprecedented phenomenon — one committed Maratha activist launching a hunger agitation and taking on the might of the entire state government and dozens of established leaders, who have ruled the state not for years but decades, and putting them on the defensive in such a way that he dictates terms to them and they have to just affirm whatever he says. Manoj Jarange-Patil has indeed become a phenomenon that Maharashtra has rarely seen in the past, perhaps once in a couple of decades!
On Monday, the true fury of the Maratha agitators was seen in many parts of Marathwada region, the nerve centre of the Maratha moment. The agitating crowd set on fire the plush residences of two or three leaders, including a sitting MLA of the state assembly. Apart from this several business establishments belonging to leaders and some political party offices were damaged or set on fire. The rage spread to western Maharashtra on Tuesday when the busy national highway NH48, also known as the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway, was blocked by Maratha agitators resulting in a 15-km queue of vehicles and a traffic mess for over three hours. In many places all over the state, offices of established political leaders were either damaged or their posters and hoardings were torn and destroyed.
The demand for reservation for the Maratha community has really taken the form of a political storm in Maharashtra. In district places and in tehsils people are gathering and putting up boards declaring that they don't want established political leaders of elected representatives like MLAs, MLCs and councillors to enter their towns or villages. The protests are intense and leaders seem so scared now that many MLAs on Tuesday announced that they would sit outside the Raj Bhavan on a hunger strike to support the Maratha agitators. This clearly shows how one lone activist, Manoj Jarange-Patil, who was virtually unknown to the state's media and public till three months ago, has now suddenly become the largest and most powerful force that commands the crores and crores of Marathas in the state of Maharashtra.
The core of this is, of course, the political reality that the masses have completely lost faith in the established leadership of Maharashtra, specially following the defections that have taken place since 2019 with leaders crossing sides and changing their political stands. As this happened, a new face, Jarange-Patil, emerged on the horizon. A non-political leader who seems honest to the core, he wants the Maratha reservation issue resolved by making the government issue Kunbi caste certification to the Marathas who are into agriculture. This is Jarange-Patil's solution to the big complex reservation issue.
However the government seems undecided and perhaps even a little confused on whether this solution can work and can last in courts if it is challenged by some other group. To add to this, some Maratha leaders who are now ministers in the BJP government in New Delhi were also heard saying that it would not be possible for all Marathas to accept Kunbi caste certification. The matter has become complex, and when that happens, the usual policy any government follows is to form expert committees and buy time. That's exactly what the Shinde government has done.
The larger political picture of course is that all this is damaging the image of the Shinde Sarkar and has put the entire government establishment in Maharashtra majorly on the defensive. The government frankly does not know what political solution can be found to the present impasse, as Jarange-Pail refuses to relent, refuses to end his hunger agitation and seems to be getting more and more support from the Maratha community from not just rural but even urban areas of the state where the agitation is now spreading. Roadblocks, rallies, street protests, and even arson in many places in the state are now becoming common visuals all across news television channels — and that too damages the image of this government in the eyes of investors.
The credibility crisis the state's established political leadership faces might have a significant impact on the upcoming elections. The Opposition is in wait-and-watch mode. Which way this Maratha agitation will now go is unclear. Some say the state leadership has had talks with the union government about whether the route of bringing out an ordinance can be taken. However, a similar exercise undertaken previously was struck down by the apex court. As predicted by this writer a few weeks ago in this column, the Maratha reservation issue has become the hottest topic to handle for the Shinde Sarkar, and which way this now goes remains to be seen.
Rohit Chandavarkar is a senior journalist who has worked for 31 years with various leading newspaper brands and television channels in Mumbai and Pune
