2024-01-27 03:02:38
Mumbai: After the Maharashtra government released the draft of the reservation ordinance, the long-running Maratha struggle has come to an end. Protesters staged a jubilant demonstration in Navi Mumbai. Maratha leader Manoj Jaranke Patil said that the strike is ending as the draft has been released. The government is bringing a new law for reservation for Marathas. The draft was given to Manoj Jaranke Patil the other day.
Reservation has been a long-standing demand of the Maratha community. Governments have taken steps to provide reservation in the past, but nothing has worked. The biggest problem facing the BJP-controlled Eknath Shinde government was the need for reservation for the Marathas. The Maratha issue came to a head when the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were just around the corner.
Marathas are described as farmers and sons of the soil. They have a lot of agricultural land as agriculture is their livelihood. Most of them speak Marathi language. One-third of Maharashtra’s population are Marathas. Of the 20 chief ministers since 1960, 12 were from the Maratha community. The present Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is also a member of the Maratha community. The community has been facing a big crisis due to the collapse of agriculture for some time. Recently, the community has been in a very backward condition due to the fact that the protest is heating up. If reservation is implemented, they will get more representation in educational institutions, government jobs etc.
In 2016, the Maratha reservation issue started burning again. Marathas organized a massive rally in Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad) to protest the rape and murder of a teenage girl in Kopardi village. After the mourning rally in black clothes, the leaders presented a petition to the collector. The demands in the petition were to arrest the culprits of the Kopardi murder, ensure higher wages to farmers as per the Swaminathan Commission report, write off farmers’ debt and introduce Maratha reservation. Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM) similarly organized 58 rallies in different districts. The demand for Maratha reservation became strong again. There were struggles in many places.
The state government announced reservation in 2018 following a state-wide agitation, but the Supreme Court quashed it. In May 2021, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the Maratha community was not socially and educationally backward and reservation was unconstitutional. A review petition was filed in April 2023, but that too was rejected by the court.
English Summary:
Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil ends protest as Shinde govt responds with draft ordinance
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