Devendra Fadnavis can't afford to ignore angry Marathas
The chief minister of Maharashtra seems to have understood that even if he enjoys full support from the BJP high command, party president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, what he lacks is the support of the majority caste in the state.
In the wake of ongoing protests by the Marathas, CM Devendra Fadnavis is trying to make contact with the community, which seems to be targeting the government over its demand for reservations in education and government jobs. Other than him, others in the party are just playing wait-and-watch.
Apparently, the BJP leadership has tried to make the CM understand the gravity of the situation, especially after the party burnt its fingers during similar agitations by the Jats in Haryana and UP and the Patels in Gujarat - both majority communities in the respective states.
The party has understood that the situation has changed since 2014, when it received votes from across all castes and communities in the name of development and Narendra Modi.
Just after returning from BJP's national conclave in Kozhikode, Fadnavis tried to urge the Maratha community “to keep party politics away". The CM, who hails from the Brahmin community, understands that caste politics can work against him as Brahmins comprises only 3.5 per cent of the state population as against 32 per cent Marathas, who till now shared ultimate power in Maharashtra.
Speaking to news channel Doordarshan on the agitation, Fadnavis accepted that the protest by the community, though peaceful, had been organised to unseat him.
Fadnavis knows that right from 1960 (when the state of Maharashtra was formed), 10 out of 16 times the chief minister has been from the Marathas, and currently - even though his cabinet has the majority of ministers from the Maratha community - what the community lacks is the decision-making power that the CM enjoys.
The Marathas have always been a strong force behind the electoral success of the Congress and NCP in Maharashtra. Understanding this, Gopinath Munde and Pramod Mahajan had tried to bring the OBCs and Nomadic Tribes under the banner of the BJP; but after Munde’s demise in 2014, the party lost its major OBC face and the lack of Maratha leadership in the BJP led to Devendra Fadnavis becoming CM.
The party had thought that politics of development would prevail over politics of caste, but more than 40 state rallies later - over the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Maratha girl - the situation has changed.
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| CM Devendra Fadnavis seems to be fighting a lone battle in Maharashtra. (Photo credit: India Today) |
The government understands that the demands of the community are hard to meet, especially relating to scrapping or amending the Prevention of Atrocities Act and 16 per cent reservation to the community – at a time when courts shot down the reservation Bill passed by the Maharashtra government under Congress-NCP rule.
The government also knows that it cannot give reservation to the Marathas by bringing them under the OBC community as the OBCs would oppose it. That’s the reason why Fadnavis is time and again requesting the Marathas to hold talks with his government.
But he seems to be fighting a lone battle. On the face of it, the Maratha agitation does not have one leader, like it was during the Patel agitation, but the might of the protest has forced Maratha stalwarts to take part in the rallies – such as Dheeraj Deshmukh in Latur, Ashok Chavan in Nanded and Ajit Pawar in Pune.
Yet, the worry for Fadnavis is not these leaders, but BJP state president Raosaheb Danve who participated in a rally in Jalna with his family.
On the other hand, OBCs have also started rallying together. Munde’s daughter and state cabinet minister Pankaja Munde met NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who is currently in jail over a money-laundering case.
Despite knowing the party line on leaders arrested on corruption charges, Pankaja openly met Bhujbal and even formed a joint front for the OBCs. She has been upset with Fadnavis over the water conservation ministry being taken away from her in the recent cabinet expansion, and even had a spat on Twitter with the CM over the same.
For Fadnavis, it's a Catch 22 situation. One of the important poll promises he had made was to take action against corrupt practices in the state cooperative sector. He was on the forefront in making allegations of graft in state cooperative banks, which are mainly controlled by the Maratha community and incidentally by leaders from the Congress and NCP.
Even during the Shiv Sena-BJP government rule in 1995, the cooperative sector was a major reason for worry for the alliance in power as it is the main source of income and power for the rural economy. Understanding its importance, Gopinath Munde had tried to encourage BJP leaders to get a footing in the sector.
Now, Fadnavis has decided to take on the cooperative bigwigs by disciplining them, which is again giving the Maratha community the sense of losing power in the state. So the agitations have to be seen in the light of this action as well.
It's not that the CM hadn't sensed the uneasiness within the Maratha community earlier. He did give them important portfolios - Chandrakant Patil was given Eknath Khadse’s charge after the latter resigned from the state cabinet and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje was nominated to the Rajya Sabha. But the Maratha community, it seems, wants more.
When the state of Maharashtra was formed, it was feared that the Marathas will dominate the state and its politics, and they did, for a long time.
But in 2014, for the first time when caste politics didn’t play an important role in election results, everyone thought that the political clock had changed direction.
Alas, they were wrong. Just two years later, it has taken a U-turn again and Devendra Fadnavis knows well that he might just have to face the brunt.