Mumbai: Even as the BJP government in Maharashtra struggles to face the unprecedented protest marches organised by the Maratha community, the various organisations representing OBCs, Muslim and Dalits plan to launch separate agitations and mobilisation to press their demands.
These communities are taking a cue from the Maratha Kranti Manch, which is organizing marches to press for 16 per cent reservation to the community which constitutes 32 per cent of the state population, execution of culprits involved in the rape and murder of a girl from Kopardi village in Ahmadnagar district and curb on misuse of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
OBC community, which constitutes 27 per cent of the state population, has organised 3 its maiden silent protest march in Nashik on October, under the aegis of Maharashtra Mali Samaj Mahasangh. OBCs support the demand made by the Maratha community for 16 per cent reservation, but don’t want the government to touch its quota. The Mahasangh president Anil Mahajan said the silent march is being held to call upon the state government to provide more facilities and jobs, and to demand bail for former minister and OBC leader, Chhagan Bhujbal, who is currently in prison in connection with corruption cases.
Incidentally, BJP MP from Bhandara-Gondiya constituency in the Vidarbha region claims that the successive governments have not done enough for the upliftment of OBC community. He told Business Standard,”I have been of the firm view that a separate ministry be set up for the OBC community.”
Further, some Muslim leaders are in the midst of organising awarness rallies to demand the immediate restoration of 5 per cent reservation provided to the community by the Congress and NCP government. The Bombay high court has already scrapped 5 per cent reservation for Muslims in government jobs and thereafter the BJP-led government also axed the 5 per cent quota that had been provided for the community in educational institutions.
Former minister of minority affairs and Congress legislator Naseem Khan alleged thart the state government was misleading the people by saying that the previous government provided 5 per cent quota to Muslims on religious grounds. He claimed it was given purely on the basis of Muslims’ social and economic backwardness.
Furthermore, Samajwadi Party legislator Abu Azmi has taken the lead to organise a meeting of the community’s leaders to work out a strategy for demanding reservation and organising a march for the same. He warned that Muslims would be forced to hit the streets if reservation in education allowed by the Bombay High Court was not restored forthwith, Business Standard reported.
On its part, a section of youths from the Dalit community last week met in the state’s tourism capital Aurangabad to plan marches across the state against any move to scrap the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Republican Party of India (Athavale) leader, who did not want to be named, said state wide agitation would be launched to press for the effective implementation of the Act. However, he made it clear that the complaints of its misuse be looked into.
Patole informed that he will move amendment to the Act to avoid its misuse. ”The information gathered under the Right to Information Act has revealed that in 95 per cent of the cases the persons booked under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act have been acquitted. Therefore, the misuse of the Act should be stopped in future,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state government, in a bid to reach out to the Maratha community in every district, will soon form a comprising one minister and two leaders of opposition.