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Pune: While lauding the tenacity of the Maratha quota agitation in Maharashtra for compelling the Centre to introduce the Constitution (127th Amendment) Bill 2021 which seeks to restore the power of State Governments to identify and specify Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBCs), Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut expressed concerns that the amendment would remain ‘half-baked’ unless the central government lifts the cap on 50% reservation.
Taking part in the debate over the 127th constitutional amendment bill in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Raut targeted the Narendra Modi-led BJP government over the 102nd Amendment in 2018 for vesting all powers in the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) for determining the backwardness of particular communities in states.
“If this bill (127th Amendment) is historic and revolutionary, then the credit must go to the sustained Maratha agitation which compelled the Centre to introduce it in the first place. Lakhs of Maratha community youth took to the streets for their rights, but in a disciplined fashion without causing any law-and-order problem…no one was harmed during these agitations nor was property damaged,” said Raut.
However, he said that he did not think that the path to Maratha reservation would be cleared even after the Constitution (127th Amendment) Bill was passed in both houses of Parliament.
“Will this Amendment pave the way for Maratha reservation? I think not. The Supreme Court, while scrapping the Maratha quota law in May this year, had upheld the 1992 Indira Sawhney verdict, which means that the cap on 50% reservation in a state remains. Unless the Centre lifts this 50% limit, there is no point in empowering the states through such Constitutional Amendments,” said the Sena MP.
Ever since the Supreme Court scrapped the Maratha quota law in May this year, the simmering issue of reservation for the Maratha community has degenerated into a mud-slinging match between the Central and the State governments with the BJP and the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance comprising of the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP trading charges with each another.
Raut, during his speech in the Upper House, said that the MVA leadership deserved credit for forcing the introduction of the Bill, citing the visit by a delegation of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Minister Ashok Chavan, who heads the cabinet sub-committee on the Maratha reservation issue, which met Prime Minister Modi on June 8.
Criticizing the Modi regime over the 102nd Amendment, Raut sarcastically remarked that the Central government knew how to make an ‘event’ out of a mistake and then celebrated it.
“In 2018, as per the 102nd Amendment, the powers of all the states to determine backwardness of a community came to the Centre with the National Commission for Backward Classes being empowered to do this by the constitutional change. At the time, we all had warned the Centre not to give so many powers to one central commission. But the government, which had made a mistake then, was in self-congratulatory mode. It seems we all have to learn from this government (Centre) how to make an event of making a mistake and how to celebrate it after correcting a mistake… Where does all their confidence come from?” quipped Raut, slamming the Centre.
The Sena MP further said that even his opposite number in the BJP, MP Chhatrapati Sambhaji – a direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and an influential Maratha community leader– felt that the amendment was pointless unless the 50% limit on reservation was raised.
Earlier, Raut, while talking to a vernacular news channel lashed out at BJP MPs from Maharashtra, particularly Raosaheb Danve and Union Minister Narayan Rane, for allegedly remaining ‘silent’ during discussions on the bill.
