Caste Calculus

Few things unsettle Maharashtra’s politics more than the volatile interplay of caste and quotas. The Maratha agitation for reservations, spearheaded by Manoj Jarange-Patil, has long vexed the Mahayuti government. Yet, the real test is how the government manages the anxieties of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), whose leaders fear that their hard-won entitlements will be diluted if Marathas are granted access to their quota pie. The formation of a new cabinet sub-committee for OBC welfare is the government’s latest gambit to soothe OBC tempers even as it tries to placate the restless Marathas.

The trigger for the OBC welfare sub-committee was the government resolution (GR) to expedite the issuance of Kunbi caste certificates to eligible Marathas based on the Hyderabad and Satara gazettes. Kunbis, a traditional farming community, are among 374 groups recognised as OBCs in Maharashtra. By extending Kunbi classification to sections of the Marathas, the state has opened a backdoor for them into the OBC quota, which currently accounts for 19 percent of reservations. The move capped a week of protests at Azad Maidan in Mumbai but provoked outrage among OBC leaders, who fear an erosion of their share.

The backlash was swift. OBC activist Lakshman Hake publicly tore up the GR at the Maratha agitation site in Mumbai. Chhagan Bhujbal, a senior OBC leader and cabinet minister, boycotted the cabinet meeting. Even as Jarange suspended his hunger strike, OBC groups began their own demonstrations.

Faced with this new front of unrest, the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis approved the formation of a dedicated OBC sub-committee. The eight-member body will be chaired by Chandrashekhar Bawankule, a BJP heavyweight from Vidarbha, where the party’s OBC support is concentrated. Significantly, Bhujbal himself has been included despite his visible dissent.

The committee’s remit is expansive. It will review welfare schemes and ensure OBC representation in state institutions in a bid to reassure OBCs of their importance while giving the government breathing space to manage the Maratha question.

The choreography is deliberate. The government has no desire to antagonise the Marathas, who account for roughly a third of Maharashtra’s electorate and dominate its rural politics. But nor can it afford to alienate OBCs, who are numerically strong, politically assertive and crucial to the BJP’s electoral base. By announcing a Maratha-friendly GR one day and an OBC-focused sub-committee the next, Fadnavis is playing a careful two-step in offering concessions to both sides while preventing either from taking to the streets en masse.

Whether the balancing act holds remains to be seen. The OBC leaders will not be placated by committees alone if Marathas begin to claim a significant share of their entitlements. For now, the government has bought time. It has defused Jarange’s stir without triggering an immediate OBC revolt. But in relying on procedural fixes and committee politics, it risks entrenching the very cycle of claims and counter-claims that has made caste quotas a permanent tinderbox.