Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj puts Maratha quota in Centre’s court

Sambhaji Raje Bhosale has said that protests to be held in other cities would continue as planned. File pic/Ashish Raje

The Maha Vikas Aghadi got a shot in the arm in its strategy when Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, the father of Sambhaji Raje Bhosale, who is spearheading a statewide silent agitation for securing the Maratha quota, wanted to know PM Narendra Modi's views on considering the demand for amending the Constitution to restore the reservation in jobs and education. He said the Centre's initiative can only overcome the Supreme Court's scrapping of the quota.

Launching the protest from Kolhapur, Shahu Maharaj spoke his mind in the presence of MVA ministers, the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and chief of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi Prakash Ambedkar. He said the deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar met him recently and told him that the demands that are in the state's ambit have been given an in-principle approval. "The Constitution has made about 125 amendments so far. What if one more is done? The subject should again be taken to the PM, who should express his thoughts clearly on the matter," said the descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

He said his forefather Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj (1874-1922), the king of the former princely state of Kolhapur, was the first to create social reservations in pre-independent India. "The community should resolutely take the issue to New Delhi. Don't think we are weak, and don't cause a contempt of the court. Sambhaji Raje alone cannot do everything; he needs 48 MPs and the state government," he said, adding that the review petition in the Supreme Court would take considerable time, and as per the experts' opinion the exercise would yield nothing.

Sambhaji Raje endorsed the father's views. He accepted the MVA's invitation to discuss the community's demands on July 18 in Mumbai, but announced that protests to be held in other cities would continue as planned.

MVA ministers Hassan Mushrif and Satej Patil told the media persons that the state's position was vindicated by the maharaja. "We can discuss the demands in the state government's ambit even tomorrow," said Patil while inviting Sambhaji Raje and representatives of the community to meet CM Uddhav Thackeray and others.

We're with but: BJP

State BJP president Chandrakant Patil skipped the Centre-related point and said his party was with the community in its fight for restoring all facilities that were given by the previous government. "I have given Smabhaji Raje a letter of support. I didn't speak here because, though I'm a resident of Kolhapur, I represent Pune in the Assembly. Raje has asked me to speak at the Pune protest," said Patil, adding that the Monsoon session of the legislature next month should begin with the discussion of the Maratha quota and legal measures that are needed to be taken. The BJP is of the opinion that the MVA government can restore the reservation by making a law again, while the MVA says it cannot because of the SC verdict.