Stating that the Maratha community was growing increasingly restless after the Supreme Court scrapped the Maratha reservation law, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, a direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji and an influential community leader, urged both Central and State government to clarify their stance on the issue and take steps to reassure the community.
The Kolhapur royal, who is on a tour of Maharashtra in a bid to find a way of resolving the quota imbroglio, said there was no need for further street agitations on part of the Maratha community in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The time has come for both the State and Central government to stop pointing fingers at each other and instead say what they propose to do for the Maratha community … since the Supreme Court’s unfortunate verdict, the community is growing increasingly restless by the day. I urge the State government to strongly advocate giving a separate quota for the community,” he said, speaking in Aurangabad on Wednesday.
He further said it was a fallacy to think that all members of the community were upwardly mobile or politically influential.
Mr. Raje further said that he would be meeting Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the BJP’s Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday to discuss the issue of Maratha reservation.
“70% of the community is poor and it is high time they were given justice. I am not speaking from the vantage point of my position as a Maratha royal, but as a community member. Also, if the issue of Maratha reservation can be resolved by my resignation, then I am ready,” he said, referring to the frustrated demand on part of some community leaders that elected Maratha representatives ought to resign if they cannot secure reservation for the community.
Appealing to the Maratha community not to agitate on the streets in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Raje also exhorted political parties to stop politicising the reservation issue.
“It is not right to take to the streets and hold people hostage with protests ... But, if governments prove ineffectual in solving the problems of the Maratha community, they will have no alternative but to resort to desperate measures,” said Mr. Raje.
However, despite the calls for restraint, Vinayak Mete, chief of Shiv Sangram, which is a BJP ally in Maharashtra, has called for a protest rally in Beed on June 5.
When questioned about Mr. Mete’s proposed protest rally, Mr. Raje, in an indirect snub to Mr. Mete, remarked that it was “dangerous to take to the streets” in these critical times.
