Congress-NCP Government pushes for divisive reservation in Maharashtra

Saswat Panigrahi

In the run-up to the Maharashtra Assembly election, the Congress-NCP Government has in principle taken a decision to introduce dubious ‘social reservations’. Accordingly, two additional quotas will be rolled out: 4.5 per cent reservation for Muslims in education and Government jobs, 12 per cent quota for Marathas.

The move came just two weeks after Maharashtra Government increased the budget allocation for minorities from Rs 360 crore to Rs 500 crore.

It is pertinent to mention here that 10.6 per cent and 35 per cent of the States’ population are Muslim and Marathas respectively.

Maharashtra is not the first State to provide reservations to minorities. The Congress Government in neighbouring Karnataka has already extended a similar reservation for Muslims in jobs and education. Tamil Nadu grants 3.5 per cent reservation to Muslims and Christians each in education and employment. Kerala and West Bengal has 12 and 10 per cent reservation for Muslims respectively. The newly-created Telangana has also proposed 12 per cent reservation for Muslims.

This move by the Prithviraj Chavan Government came on the heels of Congress-NCP alliance’s debacle in the recently- concluded Lok Sabha election. The Congress-NCP Government is in utter desperation to introduce community-based reservation to revive its sagging fortune ahead of the Assembly election scheduled in October.

The Mehmood-ur-Rehman Committee appointed by the Vilasrao Deshmukh Government on the lines of Sachar Committee, to study the social and economic status of Muslims in the State, has recommended 8 per cent reservation for Muslims in education and jobs. The Committee has also recommended a separate 10 per cent reservation for Muslim women. Similarly, the Narayan Rane Committee has recommended a whopping 20 per cent quota for the Marathas.

Obviously, the Congress-NCP Government can’t implement such wild recommendation at one go. Hence, it is going brick by brick, to implement it in toto.

One should not forget that the Justice Bapat Commission appointed by the Deshmukh Government in 2008 outrightly rejected the reservation proposal for Maratha community, following which the Congress-NCP Government appointed a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Industry Minister Narayan Rane.

The Congress-NCP Government is pushing for an exclusive Maratha reservation to cut into the vote bank of Shiv Sena, which has a firm hold on the Maratha votes.

There are three quick points that needs attention here. One, Maharashtra doesn’t belong to the Marathas alone. There are people from various other communities in the State. A reservation for only Marathas would be a gross injustice to others.

Second, in this secular country Muslims can’t be separated in the development process. By separating Muslims from the rest for the vote bank politics, the Congress-NCP Government is nurturing communal divide.

Third, such reservations are legally untenable and won’t pass the scrutiny of law.

It is high time that people of Maharashtra become aware of the sinister designs of the Congress-NCP Government.