Maharashtra Bandh: Much ado about nothing

Maratha community is more or less similar to Patel community in Gujarat. Dominant, large in number, powerful, and every other adjective than backward. They constitute around 30% of Maharashtra’s 12 crore population. They were historically dominant with most of the community had acres of land in their possession. Even after Independence, some of these were sold to the government and got very high revenue. On some fraction of their land, they built factories and mills thus becoming successful industrialists.

Maharashtra already gives a total of 52% reservation. Adding them to the list would lead to the following:

1. Either they occupy OBC quota and fight against other communities or they would be given a separate 16% reservation with the addition to 52% original reservation. Total reserved seats would increase to 68%. This would deteriorate the quality of state-run institutes and companies.
2. Other communities will begin their quest for the lucrative reservation. The whole country would observe bandhs from different communities like Gurjars, Jats, Patidar, Patels, etc. This would bleed the country dry.
3. The cutoff for the unreserved category would increase substantially, leading to phenomenon like Brain Drain and unemployment, which further agitate the society.
4. Caste-based politics would increase much further. Already we are observing an ugly phase of religion- and caste-based politics in UP, Rajasthan, Bihar, etc.
5. Many political parties would try to become well-wisher of a certain community, would instigate sentiments and manipulate them to garner huge vote shares.

It is already said that, in good governance, people fight to become the best but in poor governance, people want to remain backward. The current scenario summarizes to the fact that people now trying to prove that they are backward and can never stand on their own without the crutches of the reservation.