Tag: Maratha

‘Won’t Meet Judicial Scrutiny’: Maratha Activists Say New Bill Is a Poll Ploy by Maharashtra Govt

This is the third time a Bill of this kind has been put forth by the state – the first two attempts were struck down by the courts as being legally unsound and crossing the 50% overall reservation limit.

New Delhi: The Maharashtra state assembly on Tuesday (February 20) unanimously passed a Bill reserving 10% seats in educational institutions and government jobs for the Maratha community. This is the third time a Bill of this kind has been put forth by the state – the first two attempts were struck down by the courts as being legally unsound.

The Bill states that those from the ‘creamy layer’ will be excluded from this reservation. All three Bills have been introduced in the run-up to the elections. This time too, Maratha community leaders have argued that the Bill is an electoral trick and will not stand the legal test in courts as it has not been properly formulated.

The Eknath Shinde government introduced the Bill on the basis of the Maratha community’s “social and educational backwardness”, which it says was established by the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission survey. However, this claim is rife with controversy as six members of the Commission – including its chairman, Justice (retired) Anand Nirgude – resigned, saying that the state government was interfering with its work and trying to force them into declaring the Maratha community as backward.

Both opposition leaders and Maratha leaders who have been agitating for the reservation are unconvinced by the new Bill. Manoj Jarange, who had become the face of the Maratha protests, said that the Maratha community should have been included in the OBC community instead of being added as a separate reserved section. “Government has given us a separate reservation which crosses 50% ceiling and which does not stand the scrutiny of the law,” he said, according to The Times of India.

“We are disappointed with govt and especially with chief minister Eknath Shinde, who had taken a pledge in the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj that he would be giving reservation, but today’s decision will not stand legal scrutiny,” Pravin Indulkar, advocate and Maratha activist, said.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar said that the new Bill closely resembled the two others that had been rejected by the courts. “The draft of the bill cleared by state legislature today is the same as that of the one presented before the apex court. We need to see what happens to the fresh bill in Supreme Court,” he said.

Previous Supreme Court verdict on Maratha reservation

On October 13 this year, Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said a curative petition against the apex court’s judgement holding the Maratha reservation law unconstitutional will be listed for consideration, the Hindu reported.

In May 2021, the top court had declared reservation for the Maratha community as unconstitutional as it breached the 50% quota limit. The court had also refused to revisit its 1992 Indira Sawhney verdict which fixed the ceiling limit for reservation at 50%.

The court had further said that it found no “exceptional circumstances” or “extraordinary situation” to break the 50% ceiling limit to bestow quota benefits on the Maratha community.

Maharashtra: Ministers Dissatisfied With Shinde Govt’s Handling of Maratha Stir

Union minister Narayan Rane and Other Backward Classes leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who is also minister in the Maharashtra cabinet, have questioned the move.

New Delhi: Two Maharashtra politicians with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party dispensation have expressed dissatisfaction with the state government’s stand on the Maratha reservation issue.

The two are Union minister Narayan Rane and Other Backward Classes leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who is also minister in the Maharashtra cabinet. Both have opposed the Eknath Shinde government’s decision to extend benefits accorded to OBCs to Marathas.

The Hindu has reported that Bhujbal especially noted that this was a “backdoor entry” of the community into the OBC category.

Bhujbal is part of the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, which aligned with the ruling faction of the Shiv Sena party and the BJP last year.

He said that the culmination of the Maratha quota stir has led to anxieties among existing OBC community members.

“The OBCs are having a feeling that they have lost their reservations as Marathas will take the benefits. I support giving a separate reservation to Marathas, but not sharing the existing OBC quota with them. Because once they become a part of the existing reservations for OBCs, only they will get the benefits,” he said.

Meanwhile, Midday has reported that NCP (Ajit Pawar division) leader Praful Patel has said that Bhujbal’s criticism of the Maharashtra government  is not the official stand of the party.

Patel said Bhujbal’s stand was that of the Samata Parishad, the OBC group headed by him, and not of the NCP.

Bhujbal said that retired Justice Sandeep Shinde, who heads the committee that will look into the Kunbi records of Marathas, receives an excessively high salary. He said that while the Chief Justice of India gets a salary of Rs 2.80 lakh, Justice Shinde and the committee members get Rs 4.50 lakh each.

Maratha Quota Case: SC Declares Reservation Over 50% as Unconstitutional

The judgment by the constitution bench in the Maratha reservation matter is likely to clear many cobwebs.

New Delhi: A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday has held that reservations in excess of the 50% ceiling limit are unconstitutional. The bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, L. Nageswara Rao, S. Abdul Nazeer, Hemant Gupta and S. Ravindra Bhat struck down the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018 which extended reservation to the Maratha community in public education and employment in excess of the ceiling limit of 50% fixed by the Supreme Court earlier.

The ruling implies that the bench rejected the respondents’ plea that the Supreme Court’s nine-judge bench’s verdict in the Indra Sawhney v Union of India which had fixed the ceiling limit of 50% for reservations be referred to a larger bench.

In Indra Sawhney, the nine-judge bench had ruled that only extraordinary circumstances would justify grant of reservation in excess of the 50% ceiling.

Also read: How the Supreme Court Blocked Attempts to Dilute Merit Under the Open Category

In Indra Sawhney, the bench noted that Dr B.R. Ambedkar, chairman of the Constituent Assembly’s Drafting Committee, himself contemplated reservation being “confined to a minority of seats”. No other member of the Constituent Assembly suggested otherwise. “It is, thus clear that reservation of a majority of seats was never envisaged by the founding fathers.” But the bench added in Indra Sawhney:

“While 50 per cent shall be the rule, it is necessary not to put out of consideration certain extraordinary situations inherent in the great diversity of this country and the people.  It might happen that in far-flung and remote areas the population inhabiting those areas might, on account of their being out of the main stream of national life and in view of conditions peculiar to and characteristic to them, need to be treated in a different way, some relaxation in this strict rule may become imperative.  In doing so, extreme caution is to be exercised and a special case made out.”

On Wednesday, the five-judge bench found no extraordinary circumstances to grant reservation to the Maratha community over and above the 50% ceiling, as explained in Indra Sawhney. “Exceeding the ceiling limit above 50% without exceptional circumstances violates Article 14,” the bench put it succinctly, and added that the 2018 Act passed by the Maharashtra legislative assembly as amended in 2019 exceeds the limit without any exceptional circumstances.

The bench also found that the M.G. Gaikwad Commission too did not articulate any exceptional circumstances to justify the excess quota. The commission’s report, which was submitted on November 15, 2018 to the state government, found that Marathas are socially, educationally and economically backward and eligible to be included as a backward class. On the basis of the Gaikwad Commission report, the state legislature passed a Bill giving 16% reservation in government jobs and education to the Marathas over and above the ceiling limit fixed by the Supreme Court in Indra Sawhney.

Also read: Reservation Is About Adequate Representation, Not Poverty Eradication

The Bombay high court had, however, had taken a different view – that the extraordinary circumstances could warrant exceeding the 50% ceiling on reservations, and that the Indra Sawhney bench did not limit the state’s power to exceed the ceiling in a deserving case. The high court, therefore, had upheld the validity of the law passed by the state legislature.

The high court had also held that 102nd Amendment passed by parliament inserting Article 342A did not deprive the state of its powers to specify the SEBCs. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had earlier stayed the operation of the law favouring Maratha reservations, before referring it to the five-judge bench.

The detailed judgment of the constitution bench, to be uploaded in a few hours, will throw light on many of the issues in this reservation debate.

The ruling is likely to have an impact on several laws passed by various state assemblies reserving in excess of the 50% ceiling under the category of “extraordinary circumstances”. The ruling may also have an impact on the reservations for economically weaker sections (EWS), introduced by the Central government, in excess of the 50% ceiling.

Are Panchayat Elections in Maharashtra a Festival of Democracy or a Maratha Festival?

Studies of how rural democracy works in ‘progressive’ Maharashtra suggest the very high turnout for gram panchayat elections masks continuing inequality and incivility.

If regular elections and active voter participation in panchayat elections are understood as key for the success of democracy, then Maharashtra, like most of India, does indeed have a vibrant democracy. But does this democracy reduce inequality between sexes and castes? Do the marginal groups have an assertive voice? Does this democracy promote associational feeling across social groups?

Decentralised governance through panchayats is indeed about power to people. A Gandhian dream of self-sufficient village republics could be achieved through panchayats, but who does this power rest with in villages? Why do elected women representatives become mere pawns of their male family members? And, why do assertive representatives from marginal castes in panchayats even face violence or the threat of violence for taking their jobs and posts seriously?

What should we call a democracy which ensures the persistence of inequality and incivility? In my 2013 book, Civility Against Caste, I had suggested that caste and the associated culture of patronage politics in Maharashtra give rise to a procedural democracy void of civility. Looking at caste power – in Marathwada, particularly – provided insights into the control of dominant castes on the state apparatus. Elections were reduced to the power of money and the more localised the elections, the more money flowed into mobilisation during elections. Alcohol before the day of voting along with distribution of money are not rare sights a day before panchayat elections. An election is almost like a festival of men; while women do go out and vote, they hardly indulge in the politics of mobilisation in villages. The auction of seats for status struggles are not rare either and rural democracy is up for sale.

Also Read: Maharashtra: Amid Reports of ‘Auction’, Panchayat Elections in Two Villages Scrapped

Democracy thus may seem to be consolidating, if not deepening, in rural Maharashtra but the actual consequences of democratic functioning do not include substantive rural change. Economist Siwan Anderson and her colleagues provide a nuanced quantitative analysis of Maratha power under rural democracy and the decentralised politics of Maharashtra. Close to 90% of people vote in local elections and almost no one is forced to vote. While most vote, Marathas comprise 60% of village pradhans, as against their 40% population share. For Anderson, such over-representation of Marathas in gram panchayat (GP) results is less poverty reduction and more poor governance in villages. They suggest that the Marathas, “as the traditionally dominant caste of the region, are somehow able to control the functioning of GPs — either through their numerical strength or economic strength — and use them for reasons other than in poverty alleviation roles.”

The ‘superior social cohesion’ amongst Marathas—both the landholding and the landless—leads to a kind of political exchange in which the non-Maratha landless groups accede to their subordination in return for minimal insurance transfers.

Voters show their identity cards as they wait for their turn to cast their votes for gram panchayat election, at Varunji village in Karad, January 15, 2021. Photo: PTI

Following the 73rd amendment, the panchayats were endowed with greater funds for rural development. However, dominant castes like the Marathas use local governance and democracy for purposes other than development. Their control and dominance in local institutions of government rationalises their traditional kingly status. One of Anderson’s Maratha respondents observed, ‘Marathas have always been the rulers and so it is natural for people to accept their leadership. They have daanat (obligation to give). When labourers go to them for help in times of need (especially for marriage ceremonies and illness), they give…’

Daanat is more about status and prestige, however, and in my own research in Marathwada, I have suggested that Maratha kinghood is not restricted to dominance over Dalits—it does not spare lower OBCs either and the culture of masculine politics reduces women of all castes to domestic roles in rural politics. The masculine nature of politics in panchayats – centred around caste patronage – does little to reduce caste and gender inequalities. Thus, hopes for the promotion of scientific temper or genuine civility in rural politics is rather far-fetched.

Anderson et al.’s paper on Maharashtra is appropriately titled ‘One Kind of Democracy’. Such democracy in so-called progressive Maharashtra neither actively encourages civility nor material equality. Politics is reduced to a culture of rent seeking across government schemes, where the dominant caste gets an excess share of material benefits and the broader culture of inequality and incivility persists. Marginal castes, the landless, women and nomadic tribes have less to gain from decentralised rural democracy as the festival of procedural democracy continues.

Suryakant Waghmore is associate professor of sociology at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Maharashtra: Delays in Conducting MPSC Exams Are Extracting a Heavy Human Cost

Police have identified at least six instances of suicide in November and December of 2020 alone, where aspirants for the state government’s recruitment exam held the delays responsible for their deaths.

Trigger warning: Discussion of suicide

Mumbai: On November 28, 2020, the Lanja police station in Ratnagiri received a call informing them that a 26- year-old man, Mahesh Zore, had killed himself. A note found next to his body stated that he was tired of “waiting endlessly” for the state government to declare the dates for the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exam he had been preparing for a few years.

Zore, a Mumbai resident, had moved to Ratnagiri to prepare for the competitive state exams through which recruitment for 2,500 gazetted and non-gazetted government posts occurs every year. The investigating officer says Zore had missed the cut-off by a meagre two marks in 2019, and had hoped to make it in 2020. But as the Maharashtra government kept cancelling the dates – five times in 2020 – he killed himself “in desperation”, the police officer said.

Zore’s is not an isolated incident. In just November and December of 2020 alone, at least six separate incidents of MPSC aspirants dying by suicide have come to light. In some cases, the aspirants have left a note, clearly stating the delay in holding the MPSC exams as the reason behind their suicide. In other cases, where a note was not found, the police’s investigations found that those who died were preparing for the competitive exams for years and their postponement for an entire year took a toll on their mental health.

In Amravati’s Frezerpura area, 33-year-old Bhavesh Tayde died by suicide in mid-December. Though he did not leave a note behind, police say his family and friends narrated his struggle to them. “With just a few more attempts left (several competitive exams have 35 as the cut-off age), Bhavesh felt dejected,” the investigating officer in the case told The Wire.

A few lanes away from Tayde’s residence, another MPSC aspirant ended his life for an identical reason, the Frezerpura police have confirmed. Similarly, another case of suicide was reported in Buldhana district.

Students’ organisation like ‘MPSC Samanvay Samiti’ – which has been at the forefront of advocating timely and adequate measures from the state government to hold the exam – say the numbers could be higher. “We have been getting reports of several attempted suicides, people suffering from depression and even deaths from our students’ collective. But unless the state intervenes and investigates these incidents, one wouldn’t know the real story behind these cases,” says Nilesh Gaikwad, a BTech graduate from Buldhana district, also a member of MPSC Samanvay Samiti.

Maratha reservation: The real reason for postponement?

In 2020, each time the Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray pushed the exam dates ahead, he attributed it to the raging spread of COVID-19 in the state. The real reason for this inordinate delay, however, is the pending decision over reservations for the Maratha caste, and the mounting pressure from Maratha leaders, particularly those belonging to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). Several Maratha leaders, including BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sambhajiraje Bhosale, have openly warned the state government against going ahead with the exams until the Maratha community is included in the reservation policy. In the absence of any clarity from the apex court – which stayed the reservation, Thackeray gave in to the pressure.

Uddhav Thackeray

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. Photo: OfficeofUT/Twitter

The previous BJP-Shiv Sena state government’s decision to provide reservation to the Marathas under the ‘Socially and Economically Backward Class (SEBC)’ category was stayed by the Supreme Court in September 2020. Even as the case is being referred to a larger bench and the hearing is scheduled next on January 23, 2021, the state government on January 4 opened a new window for Maratha students to apply for the exam. Maratha students have been given an option to apply under the “open” or “Economically Weaker Section (EWS)” category. The notification also doesn’t provide an option for changes to be made once the apex court delivers its verdict.

“It is almost as if the MPSC has passed its verdict even before the Supreme Court could come to any conclusion,” says Vishwambhar Bhopale of the Maratha Vidyarthi Parishad, an organisation agitating for the rights of Maratha students in the state.

Bhopale says the notification has added to the community’s woes and most aspirants are unsure of their future. “I have been answering over 100 calls every day trying to calm students down. It is utter chaos,” he adds.

Every year, for approximated 2500 posts – both gazetted and non-gazetted – over 12 lakh candidates appear for these exams. The MPSC conducts exams only for Group A (gazetted posts) and Group B and C (non-gazetted posts). The remaining exams are conducted by different departments like the MahaPariksha Portal, handled by the MahaIT department.

Most aspirants spend years preparing for these exams. Group B and C posts are particularly looked at as an opportunity to alleviate poverty. Sagar Bhamse, who runs the coaching institute Vidarbha IAS Academy, says most aspirants spend their entire 20s preparing for and taking these exams. “These exams are their only opportunity to improve their social and economic status. Almost all of them belong to poor families and a government job is their only chance to improve their living condition,” Bhamse observes. And in the past year, Bhamse says, several students who only have a couple of attempts left have become restless—both due to COVID- 19 and the delay in holding the exams.

For women, the struggle is worse. As social pressure builds on them to get married, many give up their dreams much sooner than men.

Shama Shaikh, a 27-year-old MPSC aspirant from Pune says very few women find a supportive environment at home to stay focussed and continue with their preparation. Women, she says, drop out sooner than men. “After a few attempts, women are forced to get married and there end their dreams,” Shaikh says.

She has been preparing for the past six years and says a delay of even a year in getting recruited has a heavy cost for several women. “Unlike men, women end up studying by themselves without being enrolled at any coaching class. Families don’t want to invest in a woman’s career, they don’t this it is a reasonable ask. And in 2020, as the exams were postponed, several women were pushed to give up on their aspirations,” Shaikh adds.

Controversies in other recruitment exams

Apart from MPSC, several other exams conducted by other state departments have also been mired in serious controversies. In October, The Wire published a detailed investigative piece about a well-oiled scam in the recruitment process for Class ‘C’ and Class ‘D’ posts in various departments in 2019. Several glaring discrepancies, including propping dummy candidates to manipulation at exam centres, were exposed in the report.

Also Read: Under Fadnavis’s Watch, a Vyapam-Like Scam Flourished in Maharashtra

Similar findings, by the then Ahmednagar district collector Rahul Dwivedi, were submitted to the revenue department. In the damning report, Dwivedi had exposed several misdeeds by the department and had scrapped the appointment of selected candidates in his district. He was eventually transferred and despite an assurance given by the revenue minister, the department has decided to proceed with the recruitment process in the district.

As soon as The Wire’s report was published, revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat had said the government will carry out a preliminary inquiry into the allegation. Eventually, no such committee was set up. The report had directly established links between the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and MahaIT officials, including Kaustubh Dhavse, Fadnavis’s officer on special duty (OSD). For the 25,000 posts that were up for grabs, over 35 lakh applications had been received. The Wire‘s suggests there is a high chance of multi-crore scam – similar to the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh – having taken place during these exams. But the current government has remained non-committal on investigating the issue so far.

Several candidates have levelled allegations of rampant exam fraud in Maharashtra. Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty

In March last year, MahaIT had scrapped the contract signed with the erring company – UST Global – and a new bidding process was rolled out with 18 new companies participating in it. Finally, four companies – Aptech Limited, GA Software Technologies Private Limited, Ginger Wed Private Limited, and META-i Technologies Private Limited – were shortlisted. At least two of these firms – Aptech Limited and GA Software Technologies Private Limited – also have a questionable track record. While Aptech Limited was embroiled in court cases in Uttar Pradesh and Assam, GA Software Technologies had been blacklisted in Maharashtra, only to be taken off the list suddenly.

Students who have agitated in the past against UST Global and have raised serious objections over the MahaIT’s functioning have opposed the selection of these companies too. “When we brought to light the discrepancies in UST Global’s functioning, we expected the government to look into the matter with some seriousness and correct the earlier government’s mistake. Instead, the MahaVikas Aghadi government has handed over the exam process to other companies with equally questionable credentials. This is disheartening,” Gaikwad says.

Gaikwad had appeared for a revenue officer’s post in Ratnagiri district in 2019 and scored 172 marks, falling just two short of the cutoff. He claims that one answer of his, which was correct, was marked wrong, snatching away his chance. Gaikwad has moved the state administrative tribunal and meanwhile, has been at the forefront of investigating and unearthing myriad incongruities in the exam and selection processes.

Students’ organisations have been making unsuccessful attempts to meet ministers and political leaders of the ruling NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena. “All that we have asked for is an inquiry into our allegations and the setting up of a more transparent recruitment process. The government has disappointed us so far,” adds Bhopale.

If you know someone – friend or family member – at risk of suicide, please reach out to them. The Suicide Prevention India Foundation maintains a list of telephone numbers (www.spif.in/seek-help/) they can call to speak in confidence. You could also refer them to the nearest hospital.

Bombay HC Says Maratha Students Can Apply for EWS Quota

The Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act has been stayed by the Supreme Court.

New Delhi: The Bombay high court has said that students from the Maratha community may avail reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) if they provide an undertaking stating that they will not claim reservations under any other category for their education.

Justices S.V. Gangapurwala and S.D. Kulkarni of the Aurangabad bench told the tehsildar of Aurangabad not to deny an EWS certificate to a Maratha applicant. The Maratha caste is classified as a Socially and Educationally Backward Community.

The judges said, according to Bar and Bench, “The Tahsildar, Aurangabad shall consider if the petitioners are entitled for EWS certificate, then shall issue the same immediately. Naturally, the petitioners will have to prove before the Tahsildar that they belong to economically weaker section then only would be entitled for EWS certificate.”

The petitioner had approached the Bombay high court after the tahsildar had refused to grant them an EWS certificate, and they were not able to gain admission in a college.

The bench noted that the Maharashtra government had specified in a July 28, 2020 resolution that a person from a reserved category cannot apply for EWS reservations. However, the court continued, the Supreme Court on September 9, 2020 had stayed the Maratha reservations till the validity of the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act has been examined by a larger bench.

While the stay is on, the court decided, it does not make sense to deprive SEBCs of EWS reservation. “If the petitioners are issued with the EWS certificates in the State format and undertaking is filed by the petitioners that during the entire educational career, they would not claim benefit of any reservation, either vertical or horizontal except EWS category, then the petitioners be considered for admission from EWS category,” the bench said.

In the Sushant-Rhea-Kangana Episode, Hindutva Faces Competing Hindu Prides

Regional fault lines have assumed priority over an overarching Hindu identity as various states stand up for their own.

The year 2020 began with a classic Hindu nationalist public discourse, as the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests and the campaign against the Tablighi Jamaat in the media in the early days of the pandemic constructed a neat Muslim ‘other’ for the majority community to deal with and condemn.

However, recent months have seen regional fault lines – with some hints of caste fissures – gradually becoming visible in the public sphere, as the media focuses on Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.

The arrest of Rhea Chakraborty, the late actor’s friend, on charges of procuring drugs for Sushant – and the war of words between the Shiv Sena and actor Kangana Ranaut – has seen national opinion gradually splitting across multiple, sub-national, fault lines.

Viewing Muslims with suspicion is part of the Hindu nationalist discourse, as it seeks to project the nation as Hindu. However, this requires the inclusion of multiple caste and regional groups within the broad rubric of Hinduism.

As the media debates Sushant and Rhea at a time of an economic crisis, a raging pandemic and Chinese aggression, and political parties try to base their politics on the images that the media throws around, the neat world of Hindu nationalism is showing signs of fissures within.

Also read: Backstory: Everything Wrong With the Media Is Reflected in the Sushant Singh Rajput Coverage

Cracks in Hindu nationalism?

Political leaders in Bengal have latched on to the unending news flow around Rhea Chakraborty to argue that Bengali women have become a soft target for the BJP, accusing the party of playing up what is essentially a legal issue with an eye on the coming Bihar elections.

The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of besmirching the reputation of a Bengali woman, thus appealing to a distinctive Bengali sense of collective self.

As elections in the state draw nearer, these parties hope to halt the forward march of the BJP – the party had got almost 40% votes in Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls – by painting it as “anti-Bengali”.

The state’s Bhadralok culture has traditionally seen Hindutva as a very north Indian interpretation of Hindu culture, which is purportedly more ‘boorish’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘masculine’ than Bengali religious practices, which are supposedly more egalitarian in gender terms.

The BJP has offered the TMC and other parties a chance to evoke a regional sense of hurt in the unseemly controversy surrounding the death of the late actor.

In Bihar, the BJP has already launched a campaign around ‘justice’ for Sushant Singh Rajput, playing on the sentiment that his death isn’t just a case of suicide but a result of abetment and foul play. His girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty has been portrayed as an arch-villain, if not conspirator, in the death.

Also read: Is the BJP Deriving Political Mileage Out of the Sushant Singh Rajput Case?

The art and culture wing of the party has begun a poster campaign around the late actor. In this, the party that celebrates a pan-Indian nationalism infused with Hindu imagery has made a sentiment of hurt regional pride an electoral issue.

Actor Rhea Chakraborty. Photo: PTI

Kangana-Shiv Sena conflict

Actor Kangana Ranaut, who employed the controversy around the death of Rajput to claim that nepotism in the Hindi film industry was the reason of his unfortunate death, has succeeded in also bringing the angle of Marathi pride into this already complex mix of conflicting identities.

It all began when she tweeted that Mumbai seemed unsafe and had begun to appear like Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, making Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut asking her not to come to the city if she felt so. Accusing her of insulting Maharashtra, Shivaji Maharaj and Mumbai, he also used the expletive ‘haramkhor ladki‘ for her.

Ranaut was given Y-plus security by the Centre. The Shiv Sena-led municipal corporation issued her a notice for illegal construction at her Manikarnika Films office in Bandra, and also carried out demolition work by the time she could get a stay order from the high court.

Ranaut has used all the available Hindutva tropes to hit out at the Sena: she called her office Ram Mandir and the demolition squad ‘Babar’ and also said that she now understood what Kashmiri Pandits must have felt when they were displaced.

The irony is that the battle between the Sena and Ranaut is using roughly the same tropes: pride in the nation, pride in the city and pride in historical and mythological heroes.

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut arrives at Mohali International Airport before she left for Mumbai, in Chandigarh, Wednesday, September 9, 2020. Photo: PTI

Hindutva, in other words, seems to have taken a curious turn, making one strand of itself the other of another strand and in mutual conflict.

In a hint that another intra-Hindutva fault line may not be too far away, the Karni Sena has protested against the Shiv Sena and burnt the effigy of Raut in Gorakhpur.

It also protested outside Raut’s Delhi residence and said that “Rajputs respect women” and are willing to fight for their honour. Significantly, Ranaut is herself a Rajput from Himachal Pradesh.

Seeking enemies within the nation is crucial for Hindutva’s successes at present. For, it generates constant tension and thrill that maintain the centrality of Hindutva to the public sphere and also makes supporters ask for more.

However, the latest turn has brought potential internal contradictions of Hindutva to the fore.

No Muslim, for once

For once, there is no Muslim involved here. There is Maratha pride, Bihari pride, Bengali pride and a hint of Rajput pride. How Hindutva reconciles these competing prides is to be seen.

It is important to remember that Rajasthan has had a history of Maratha incursions, which was evoked by sections of Rajputs when they had turned against Vasundhara Raje (a descendant of the Scindia Maratha dynasty) in the run-up to the last Rajasthan assembly elections in 2018.

Hindutva is the ruling ideology of India today. It has taken secularism apart, decimated the left and also triumphed over the Savarna-backward binary in much of northern India.

But the question is how long it can maintain its national coherence amid multiple, conflicting, prides of caste and regional-linguistic groups in Hindu-majority states in India.

Hindutva to be stable requires that the Muslim has a voice, for competing cultural interests among Hindus can then be asked to converge against this Muslim other.

But if an all-powerful Hindutva makes Muslims invisible and voiceless, competing sub-Hindu prides are likely to come up, which can dent the coherence of Hindutva along the axes of region, language and caste.

The media circus and political polarisation around the death of an actor is showing signs of bringing into sharp focus the issue of diversity. Diversity is not just about the existence of several religions in India.

Hindutva is not just an idea that can marginalise minorities. It is also an idea that can open a Pandora’s box of conflicting Hindu claims.

Then it becomes not just about who is a Hindu, but also about who is a prouder Hindu than the rest.

Vikas Pathak is the author of the 2018 book Contesting Nationalisms: Hinduism, Secularism and Untouchability in Colonial Punjab, 1880-1930. He teaches at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.

Maratha Man Shoots Dalit Woman Dead for Preventing Her Daughter’s Abduction

Ahmednagar police accused of not acting upon Savita Gaikwad and her daughter’s complaints against Rahul Sable for nearly three years. 

Vadzire, Ahmednagar: Twenty- year old Asmita Gaikwad sits listlessly around a stack of legal documents that has piled up in her cramped one-room house in Vadzire village, 55 kilometres from Ahmednagar district, over the past three years. These papers, which she has doggedly collected over the course of several complaints made to the police and the state government, stand testimony to the torture that she and her family had endured while fighting the sexual advances and casteism in the hands of a 27-year-old Maratha man, Rahul Sable.

Ahmednagar, categorised as an “atrocity prone district”, is once again in the grip of another shocking crime.

On February 17, Sable, after harassing Asmita for years, had reached her doorstep and asked for her. Her mother, 36-year-old Savita Gaikwad, stood by the door and prevented Sable’s entry into the house. Angered by her resistance, Sable pumped four rounds of bullet into Savita. She died almost instantly. “He held a gun to my mother’s head and asked, you will do anything for your daughter, right? Now die for her,” says Asmita. A bullet had perforated the left side of Savita’s temple and exited from her right cheek. Two other bullets were lodged in her shoulder and one in her palm.

Savita’s cold-blooded murder is the latest of the many atrocities that Sable has inflicted on the Gaikwad family over the past three years. Each time, the police had failed to act. In some instances, according to the Gaikwads, the police even supported and encouraged the accused.

Savita lay in a pool of blood and the horror of the crime was such that no one from the neighbourhood came to help the family. Asmita and her uncle, Savita’s elder brother Santosh, picked up the body and took her to the hospital outside the village, where Savita was declared dead on admission. Sable escaped from the crime scene and has since been absconding.

Also Read: What Lies Beneath the Alarming Rise in Violence Against Dalits?

Asmita’s ordeal first started in 2017, when she was only 17, still a minor. Sable, who lived in the Randhe village, approximately six kilometres from Vadzire, would follow her every day. Fully aware that Asmita’s family would not be able to fight the might of a caste Hindu man, Sable’s harassment escalated. “He would block my path when I was outside and threaten me with dire consequences if I did not marry him,” Asmita says, repeating what she has been telling the police and the magistrate over the past few weeks.

Although poor, Asmita says she and her mother were determined to fight Sable. After a few months of harassment, in 2018, Asmita had filed her first complaint with the Parner police under several sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Indian Penal Code. “The police, after dodging us, were finally forced to register an FIR.” Sable was even sent to jail for a week.

The bail conditions, among other things, had prevented Sable from approaching Asmita. But after his release, Sable only became more audacious. “He started to contact me on my phone, land at my doorstep and even sent his friends to shadow me everywhere.”

Sable, Asmita says, would barge into her college and forcibly sit next to her in class. Students and even teachers were reluctant to intervene and help her. “He would also drive into the company (she worked at a mineral water bottling company nearby to support her education) and harass me,” she says.

The lane where Savita Gaikwad’s body was found. Photo: Sukanya Shantha/The Wire

“He married me at gunpoint”

On February 11, 2019, while Asmita was on her way to work, Sable had blocked her way, forced her to get into a car and drove her 85 kilometres away to Alandi in Pune district. On February 12, Asmita says, he held her at gunpoint and forcibly married her.

After the marriage, Sable had taken Asmita to his home in Randhe village, where he lived with his mother and father. “Rahul would beat me every day and his mother too tortured me. They both abused me and called me names for belonging to a lower caste. I put up with all this hoping to be rescued from the house someday,” she says. Her younger sister tells The Wire that the family had on several occasions tried to meet Asmita but were turned away each time.

After living at the house for nearly four months, one evening when Sable was not home, Asmita managed to escape. “I had been planning it for days. Finally, when his mother was asleep, I ran away,” she says. Asmita took a bus to Mumbai and went to the house a relative in Navi Mumbai, where she stayed for a few months.

Accused Rahul Sable’s house in Rande village has been locked ever since the incident. His parents have fled the house fearing for their lives. Photo: Sukanya Shantha/The Wire

“Police killed my mother”

Unlike the general perception of the Maratha community’s economic status, Sable’s family survived on limited means and possessed only about one acre of land. These limited resources, however, Asmita says, didn’t prevent Sable from gaining clout with the police. “He would move around with the policemen at Parner police station and would also boast about his close contacts with them,” she claims.

Each of these allegations has been mentioned in the complaints Asmita has repeatedly made to the police. Asmita says she knew she could not escape him but did not want to give in. “Each time he threatened me or my mother, we would head to the Parner police station. The police looked at us as a nuisance and would turn us away. When we didn’t budge, they took down our complaint but converted them into a non-cognizable offence,” Asmita says. She has named two policemen – police inspector Pawar and constable Vinod Rohidas Borge – in the statement recorded before a magistrate under section 164 of CrPC. She accuses the duo of colluding with the accused.

“Only if the police had acted promptly, my mother would have perhaps been alive. They killed my mother,” says Asmita, as she bitterly recalls the police’s inaction, and their ill-behaviour towards her and her mother.

Also Read: The Dark Realities of the SC/ST Atrocities Act: An Ethnographic Reading

Despite several complaints against Pawar and Borge, the Parner police have only transferred them to another police station but have not initiated any action against them. Deputy superintendent of police Ajit Patil, who is investigating the murder, told The Wire that the role of the two policemen is being investigated too.

Savita, who was married off at a very young age (Asmita says her mother would not have been more than 13 at the time of her marriage), had been separated from her husband for over 15 years. Savita and her two daughters had moved to Vadzire around the same time. They have since been living in the Dalit basti, situated outside the village limits. Of the village’s more than 200 houses, just 15 belong to the Scheduled Caste community. The other households are either Marathas or other backward classes.

A police constable posted outside Gaikwad’s house soon after the murder. Photo: Sukanya Shantha/The Wire

Police investigation so far

After the killing, Sable had escaped from the crime scene. Investigating officer Patil told The Wire that Sable had switched his phone hours before the crime and has remained untraceable. “Sable ran a mobile shop and he was smart to not leave any trail behind,” Patil said.

The police have, so far, arrested his close aide Suresh Mapari, who was present with Sable at the time of the murder. Other friends of his, like Sanket Supekar and Pawan Dighe, have been questioned and released since the police “didn’t find any concrete evidence against them”.

Caste atrocities have been on the rise in Maharashtra, and particularly in Ahmednagar, the incidents have been brutal. In the past decade, Ahmednagar has seen several incidents against Dalits such as Nitin Aage’s murder in Kharda village and the triple murder of a family in Javkheda village in 2014, the Sonai triple murder in 2013 and Sagar Shejwal’s murder in Shirdi in 2015.

In 2016, 1,750 cases of atrocities against the Scheduled Castes were registered in Maharashtra. This rose to 1,974 in 2018, along with 8,280 cases pending trial from the previous years. The conviction rate, however, has been abysmally low in the state, even worse than states such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, where caste atrocities have always been high. Of the total cases disposed of in Maharashtra in 2018, only 78 led to a conviction. In as many as 826 cases, the state failed to prove the case, leading to acquittal.

(Asmita Gaikwad’s identity has been revealed in the report upon her request.)

Maharashtra Elections: Tracking the Changing Fates of Congress and BJP

After the saffron parties reduced the Congress-NCP combine’s strength, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi has emerged as a credible alternative.

Mumbai: 2014 was a definitive moment in Indian politics, not just at the Centre but also in Maharashtra. Until then, Maharashtra was essentially a Congress-led state, with a non-Congress opposition never winning a majority on its own. The only time the Bhartiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine came to power, in 1995, was because of substantial support from independent and rebel MLAs.

The BJP, until the last assembly election, had only played second fiddle to the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. Winning just half as many seats as the Sena, the party mostly relied on the Gujarati and other non-Maharastrian, migrant votes in the state. It was considered an insignificant opposition in the assembly.

The 2014 assembly election, however, changed the political equation and the Congress is on the verge of losing what is perhaps its last stronghold. Of the 21 chief ministers that the state has had (three when it was Bombay state, before Maharashtra was formed in 1960), only two Sena leaders – Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane – took the top job, that too within a period of five years. The state, before and after, has usually chosen the Congress-NCP combine.

What changed in 2014?

The 2014 state assembly polls, scheduled soon after the general elections, was directly impacted by the “Modi wave”. The change in power at the Centre determined the verdict.

Also Read: Interview | ‘BJP Have Me on a Radar’: Ashok Chavan Speaks on Congress’s Hopes in Maharashtra

A closer look at the vote share and the number of seats won indicates that the Congress performed its worst in the elections to the 288-member assembly – the second largest after Uttar Pradesh’s 403. The grand old party won merely 42 seats, down from 82 in 2009. The NCP too lost its ground in some crucial seats in western Maharashtra and Mumbai. Its tally dropped to 41 seats from 62 in 2009. The BJP, which had contested on its own, sprung a surprise by winning 122 seats, up from a meagre 46 before.

Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi. Photo: PTI/Files

Marathas shift gears

The Congress-NCP combine was largely supported and run by the Maratha-Kunbi community. Across regions, most party leaders are from these peasant communities and played a crucial role in determining the political strategy while also leading the state for several decades. It is estimated that Marathas constitute over 35% of the state population and represent 70% of the political leadership.

However, a shift in their political allegiance could be traced in the 90s, when the BJP was able to consolidate the Maratha votes, particularly in the Vidarbha region. Farmers’ crisis, aided by the Hindutva agenda, had largely influenced the voters in the region. The shift became clear in 2014, when the party managed to win 44 of the 62 assembly seats in Vidarbha, its best-ever performance.

Also Read: Maharashtra: In ‘Urban Manifesto’, Collectives Seek Better Living Conditions for All

In 2016, following the rape and murder of a teenage Kunbi girl – allegedly by three Dalit men, Marathas took to the streets. The initial demand for strict punishment to the accused soon took a political turn and instead of the rapists, the Dalit community became a target. Marathas sought dilution of the Prevention of Atrocities Act, which provides a safeguard to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. A demand for reservation in education and jobs for Marathas also rose.

The BJP cashed in on this opportunity, agreeing to their demands. In November 2018, the state legislature passed a Bill proposing 16% reservation for the Marathas. This decision, as expected, was challenged in the high court, which upheld it. The order stands challenged before the apex court now.

Maratha Kranti Morcha activists at a protest demanding reservation in jobs. Photo: PTI

This decision earnt the BJP massive support from the community. Several Maratha leaders defected from the Congress-NCP combine to the BJP. In June 2016, as Maratha protests were on, the BJP nominated Sambhaji Raje, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, to the Rajya Sabha. A few months ago, the NCP MP from Satara and a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Udayan Raje Bhosale, joined the BJP. The party also poached Bhosale’s cousin, Shivendra Raje Bhosale – another strong leader – from the NCP. Udayan Raje is contesting the Lok Sabha bypolls, and Shivendra Raje is contesting the assembly polls.

The ability to attract Maratha votes is considered to be chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ biggest achievement. This changed the BJP’s fortunes in the state, as it was previously considered a ‘shetji-bhatji’ i.e. a Brahmin-Baniya-ruled party. In 2019, the party has provided tickets to more than 50 Maratha leaders.

Fadnavis is only the second Brahmin (the community comprises less than 3% of the state’s population) chief minister of Maharashtra. Before him, Manohar Joshi of the Sena was elected but could not complete his term.

The third front

In every Maharashtra election, attempts have been made to float a third front. During elections, smaller parties and leaders with radically different politics have formed alliances, only to dissolve the arrangement later.

In 2009, 16 political parties – including the Republican Party of India (Athawale) group which was a part of the then ruling Congress-NCP government led by Ashok Chavan – had floated a third front. Left parties, the JDS, Samajwadi Party and smaller people’s group came together as an alternative to the ruling Congress-NCP and the opposition BJP-Sena. This alliance did not last more than a few months and after the election, each party went its own way. Despite contesting all the seats, it managed to win only 18.

A similar alliance was formulated again in 2014, with 18 parties joining hands. But this time, two crucial parties – the Swabhimani Party of Raju Shetti, Surajya Paksha, and RPI (Athawale) – decided to go with the BJP.

By 2019, Shetti parted ways with the BJP and decided to join forces with the Congress, both in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

Although Maharashtra has had several smaller organisations and political fronts showing eagerness to collaborate and form an alternative front, they never had a clear agenda or a vision to carry it forward beyond an election.

But in 2018, in response to the state’s decision to clamp down on the Dalit and other Bahujan communities following violence at Bhima Koregaon near Pune, a new political thought took birth. It was soon named as “Vanchit Bahujan Party”, a party of the marginalised majority of the state conceptualised and headed by Prakash Ambedkar, a veteran political leader and grandson of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.

Also Read: Congress-NCP Mass Defections in Maharashtra Signal a Deep Rot in Leadership

The social movement soon took a political turn and the party decided to contest all 48 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. It will also contest all the seats in the state assembly. While the VBA has maintained that it was formed to give the state an alternative to both the saffron and the Congress party politics, it has been accused of playing a spoiler. Some, including the Congress, went on to accuse the VBA as the BJP’s “B-team”.

The VBA experimented in the Lok Sabha elections by fielding almost all candidates from marginalised communities which seldom got political representation. It managed to fare well in the general elections, with a sizeable vote share of over 9%. It is now in full swing to take on the BJP in the assembly election.

At a time when the Congress is ailing in the state, the VBA has emerged as a true political alternative, with over 200 social and political organisations joining it.

It started off with an alliance with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), but the alliance was soon broken. In the assembly polls, the party is contesting all the 288 seats. It was the first party to announce the castes of its candidates.

VBA leader Prakash Ambedkar. Photo: PTI

The stage in 2019

The depleted Congress-NCP has also had to deal with many senior leaders switching sides. Some of these leaders will contest on behalf of the BJP and some on behalf of the Sena. Unlike the 2014 state assembly elections, the Congress and the NCP have stitched together a pre-election alliance. Similarly, after several rounds of negotiations, the Sena and BJP have also allied.

Also Read: Maharashtra Polls: Tickets Turn Sore Point in Saffron Alliance, Cong-NCP Struggle For Candidates

While the BJP has faced the peculiar problem of having surplus candidates, the Congress and the NCP have struggled to find appropriate candidates to pose a challenge to the saffron parties. The Congress also had to increase its number of candidates after talks with smaller parties failed. The party had originally planned to field 125 candidates but has finally come up with a list of 155.

The Congress’s Mumbai leadership has been in shambles for the past five years. Most leaders, including Sanjay Nirupam, have kept away from the election campaigns.

To accommodate leaders who have defected from the Congress or NCP, the BJP and the Sena are now facing problems with their own cadre and second rung of leadership. Because most leaders who defected are senior and have clout in their respective regions, the saffron parties had to field them in the elections. At least nine newly inducted Congress and NCP leaders will contest on a BJP ticket. This has meant that at least 12 sitting MLAs have been denied tickets, leaving them and other leaders unhappy.

The decision to drop big names from the BJP’s list has also caused problems. Veteran leaders like Eknath Khadse, Vinod Tawade, Chandrasekhar Bawankule and Raj Purohit have been denied tickets. Khadse immediately declared that he would contest as an independent candidate. The party, however, placated Khadse by fielding his daughter Rohini from the Muktainagar constituency in north Maharashtra. Khadse has represented this seat since 1991, but after his name emerged in a corruption case in 2016, he had to resign and has been in the wilderness since.

Plea in SC Challenges Bombay HC Decision on Maratha Quota

The petition says the reservation was granted under “political pressure” and in “full defiance” of the constitutional principles of equality and rule of law.

New Delhi:  A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay high court order which upheld the constitutional validity of the quota for the Maratha community in education and government jobs in Maharashtra.

The plea, which might come up for hearing next week, said the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, which provided a 12% and a 13% quota to the Maratha community in education and jobs respectively, breached the 50% ceiling on reservation fixed by the apex court in its landmark judgment in the Indira Sahwney case, also known as the “Mandal verdict”.

Sanjeet Shukla, a representative of “Youth for Equality”, an NGO, claimed in the petition that the framing of the SEBC Act for Marathas was done under “political pressure” and in “full defiance” of the constitutional principles of equality and rule of law.

“The high court erred in concluding that the mere fact that other OBCs would have to share their reservation quotas with the Marathas (if the Marathas were simply included in the existing OBC category) constitutes an exceptional circumstance warranting a breach of the 50 per cent ceiling limit set by Indira Sawhney,” the plea filed by advocate Pooja Dhar said.

The Bombay high court, in its June 27 order, said the 50% cap on reservation imposed by the apex court could be exceeded only in exceptional circumstances.

“The majority in the Indira Sawhney case held that the ceiling limit of 50 per cent was a binding rule and not merely a rule of prudence,” the plea said.

It said the high court’s order upheld a 65% reservation in Maharashtra (there being no community hailing from far-flung or remote areas), which was contrary to the nine-judge bench decision of the Supreme Court in the Indira Sawhney case.

“It is evident that the Maharashtra government has made a mockery of the rule of law. It has also used its constitutional powers arbitrarily and purely for political gains,” the plea said.

Also read: Why the Bombay HC Judgment on Maratha Reservation Is Inherently Flawed

It said the SEBC Act was “unconstitutional” for violating the Bombay high court’s 2015 order without removing its basis, overstepping the constitutional limitations contained in the 102nd amendment to the Constitution and for merely succumbing to political pressure, in complete violation of the constitutional principles of rule of law.

According to the 102nd amendment to the constitution, reservation can be granted only if a particular community is named in the list prepared by the president.

The plea further claimed that the Bombay high court “erred” in concluding that the mere fact that 85% of Maharashtra’s population was “backward” was so extraordinary as to warrant a breach of the 50% ceiling limit.

It also claimed that the high court overlooked the fact that Marathas occupied 40% of the government jobs available in the open category.

“The high court overlooked the fact that the Gaikwad Commission itself recorded that the Maratha community forms only 19 per cent of the population, which shows that the assumption behind the SEBC Act that Marathas constitute 30 per cent of the population was bad,” it said.