Quota Fraud

In Maharashtra’s roiling politics, scandal is rarely novel. But what distinguishes the affair of NCP leader Manikrao Kokate is not merely its age (three decades old) but the brazenness of its facts and the slipperiness of the response. A serving cabinet minister in the ruling Mahayuti, convicted of cheating and forgery for fraudulently cornering housing meant for the poor, has resigned only after an arrest warrant was issued and the threat of disqualification became unavoidable speaks volumes against the ruling government. Kokate should be formally sacked, swiftly arrested and treated like any other citizen convicted of criminal fraud.

In a case dating back to 1995, Kokate and his brother were found guilty of falsely claiming eligibility under the Chief Minister’s discretionary housing quota, meant for low-income families, to secure two flats in Nashik. The offences are a catalogue of dishonesty: cheating, forgery, using forged documents and acting with common intent. The sessions court upheld the magistrate’s verdict of a two-year sentence and a fine, triggering the Representation of the People Act’s clear provision: a conviction of two years or more brings immediate disqualification unless stayed by a higher court.

What followed was depressingly familiar. An arrest warrant against Kokate was issued, who rushed to the Bombay High Court. Kokate’s chest pain conveniently intervened, producing a hospital bed at Lilavati Hospital and a temporary shield from the police. Meanwhile, allegations surfaced that the State’s machinery was bending over backwards to buy time for a legal reprieve. None of this inspires confidence that the law applies evenly, least of all when ministers are involved.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, partners in the ruling Mahayuti, are said to have insisted on Kokate’s exit, acutely aware of the optics of sheltering a convicted man. But Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis must act firmly now.

Kokate’s boss, NCP chief Ajit Pawar, who now holds the sports portfolio along with finance and excise, finds himself once again at the uncomfortable centre of a moral muddle. His faction of the NCP has long claimed pragmatism as its creed. Yet pragmatism that shades into permissiveness corrodes legitimacy, especially given successive scandals involving his aide, Dhananjay Munde and son Parth Pawar.

Housing quotas for the economically weak are among the most tangible expressions of state compassion. To abuse them is thieving from those with the least voice. That such a crime could coexist with ministerial office sends a toxic signal about what Maharashtra’s political class considers tolerable.

Kokate’s past antics, including being caught playing rummy on his phone during an assembly session, add farce to the felony. But this is no laughing matter. The right course is to accept the resignation formally, sack him decisively, ensure the arrest warrant is executed without indulgence, and let the courts run their course without interference. Anything less will confirm the suspicion that in Maharashtra’s politics, a resignation is merely a pause button and justice is a negotiable inconvenience.