CHANDRAPUR: The confusion over sub-castes and demands of reservation from different groups within the Maratha community resulted in low turnout in the Maratha-Kunbi Muk Kranti Morcha in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra on Wednesday.
This was the first Maratha morcha in eastern Vidarbha region of the State. The demand of the Marathas are caste reservation, amendments in the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and capital punishment for the culprits in Khopardi gang rape case.
While the Maratha silent protests in other parts of the State were called as “Maratha Kranti Muk Morcha,” Chandrapur’s morcha on Wednesday was named as “Maratha-Kunbi Kranti Muk Morcha.”
“The Marathas are hardly five per cent of the total population in this area. The Kunbis (a sub-caste of the Marathas) are more in numbers here. This is a Kunbi protest in support of the Marathas,” Mr. Shailesh Pipare, a Kunbi participant in the protest said.
To a question about why the Kunbis, who already have reservation benefits as they are categorised under the Other Backward Castes (OBC) community, are backing the Marathas' demands, Avinash Jadhav, a Maratha politician from Rajura, in Chandrapur, said: “There is hardly any difference between the Kunbis and the Marathas. Those from the community who fought battles were called the Marathas and those who worked in the farms were called the Kunbis. The Marathas are not demanding reservation under the OBC category. We want reservation without altering the existing reservation system.”
However, confusion was visible among participants and expectations of a large turnout were soiled. The protesters were unsure whether separate reservation for the Marathas will include the Kunbis.
A young girl addressing the crowd at the Chanda Club ground demanded that the Marathas be included in the Bahujan Samaj and with 52 per cent reservation.
Unconfirmed reports claimed that Kunbi politicians, who have a stronghold over the community in the region, asked them not to take part in Wednesday’s rally, and that a few messages circulated on mobile-application WhatsApp chat groups read “ Tumhi kunbi asal, tar morchat nasal ,” (If you are Kunbi then you won’t participate in the protest.)
The Chanda Club ground, which has the capacity to accommodate almost 40,000 people, was only partially filled when the Morcha concluded, with a few young girls giving a memorandum of demand to the district collector.
The memorandum included new demands, like a quota in the higher judiciary for the OBC, the SC, and the ST community and taking the Maharashtra Gourav Award back from Shivshahir Babasaheb Purandare, which were never raised earlier in protests across the State.
The announcements made during Wednesday’s protest stressed on “providing reservation to the Marathas without altering the existing reservation for other castes.”
