Tag: Modi Government

Sanjay Raut Shiv Sena

Shiv Sena (UBT) Questions Centre’s Intent On Reservation For Marathas

By LokMarg

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said that a constitutional amendment is required for Maratha reservation and asked if the Modi government would bring any proposal related to this in the winter session.

Sanjay Raut said, “For Maratha reservation, BJP leaders will have to take the initiative because PM Modi is the Prime Minister. Why do the BJP leader and Maharashtra CM not say anything on this to PM Modi? Will the Modi government bring any proposal related to this in the winter session in December? “

“If you want to give reservation then OBC and other communities should not face any setback. So the government will have to bring Constitutional amendments and for that, you will have to bring a proposal in the Parliament,” said Sanjay Raut.

Sanjay Raut alleged that the Maharashtra government did not want to take a decision on the Maratha Reservation before December 31 as it is the deadline for the Assembly Speaker to decide on the disqualification of 16 MLAs.

Raut also claimed that 16 MLAs who were part of the split in Shiv Sena almost a year back are going to be “disqualified”.

In June 2022, a group of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray – saying that the latter’s decision to align with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party went against the party’s Hindutva ideology. Shinde, then cabinet minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, led the revolt which vertically split the Shiv Sena.

Sanjay Raut said, “The Speaker of the Assembly has been given a deadline of December 31 and asked to take a decision. After December 31, along with the Chief Minister, 16 MLAs will become ineligible. That’s why Jarange Patil has said 24th December and the government has said 2nd January. The government wants to put this responsibility on the new government after the assembly election”

“Nothing came out of the all-party meeting. The Maratha community from the whole of Maharashtra is supporting Manoj Jarange Patil,” he added.

Earlier, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde met with the Jarange Patil and assured him that a viable solution for the reservation was being worked on.

The Maratha activist agreed to call off his protest and gave the state two months’ time to come good on its promise of reservation for the Maratha community.

After the meeting with Jarange Patil, CM Eknath Shinde said, “It might be the first incident in history for a justice (retired) to visit a fasting protest site to resolve the situation, Manoj Jarange Patil has given a two-month deadline of January 2. The government will seriously undertake steps to provide a judicially sustainable and legally viable solution that can pass scrutiny by courts for the Maratha community,”

“Until now, 13,514 records have been found, which is significant. The Justice Shinde Committee has worked day and night. The committee has asked for an extension, which I have conveyed to Manoj Jarange-Patil. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had decided that this issue should be resolved through discussions and dialogue.” he added.

Justice Maroti Gaikwad, Justice Sunil Shukre, Advocate Himanshu Sachdev, and others were part of the delegation that met with Manoj Jarange Patil.

MLAs, Sandipan Bhumare, Dhananjay Munde, Atul Save, Uday Samant, Bachchu Kadu, and Narayan Rane also spoke with Manoj Jarange Patil to resolve the fasting protest.

“We are also working on the curative petition in the Supreme Court. The committee of judges established by the state government yesterday is guiding the government and the commission based on the observations recorded by the Supreme Court when it cancelled the Maratha reservation earlier. The Backward Classes Commission will undertake the task of assessing how the Maratha community is backward. The government will work very seriously to provide judiciary-sustainable reservations to the Maratha community,” CM Shinde further added.

Meanwhile, the state government on Tuesday accepted the first report presented by the Shinde committee and issued a Government Resolution (GR), to decide the procedure for granting Kunbi caste certificates to the Maratha in the Marathwada region.

The Justice Shinde committee reviewed the district-wise records in connection to the Maratha reservation. The committee directed the concerned 8 District Collectors to prepare a single sample for all the districts of Marathwada and inspect the records to submit a report to the government regarding the checked records.

The process of issuance of Kunbi certificates has begun. The Kunbi community is eligible for reservation in the OBC category. (ANI)

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Farmers’ Agitation Is Modi Govt’s Biggest Test

By Sanjoy Narayan

Forget the Covid pandemic; forget the economic downturn; forget election debacles or political crises. The biggest test that the Modi regime, soon to turn seven years old, has been subjected to during its ongoing tenure is the deafening protests by farmers against the changes that the Indian government has sought to bring about in the way farmers are able to grow, market, and price their produce.

In the last three months, protests by farmers have reached a crescendo. On January 26, which was India’s 72nd Republic Day, a group of angry farmers deviated from their designated protest route, tried to storm the historic Red Fort, and clashed with police. As that was happening, a few kilometres away, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was presiding over the official Republic Day celebrations on Delhi’s Rajpath.

At least 70 farmers have died during the raging protests against three laws that the government has passed. And, the protests, which began in the northern state of Punjab, have now spread across the country. What makes the controversial farm laws and the protests against them such a big trial for Modi and his government? For an answer, let us first recapitulate the new laws and their impact.

The three new farm laws change decades-old policies regarding procurement and storage of farm produce. One law permits the setting up of mandis (or trading places) that are de-regulated from government control—that is, where farmers can sell directly to all traders at prices they negotiate rather than to only government licensed traders; another law permits farmers to enter into contract farming through deals with corporate entities and to grow whatever crops they decide to under contract; and the third allows traders to stock produce with less restrictions than at present.

The government’s rationale for these changes is ostensibly this: they will enable farmers to sell at whatever prices they want and to anyone they want to; and to be able to enter into contracts that could assure them regular and steady streams of income. From the ongoing protests, which have been escalating, it is quite evident that the farmer community has not bought this logic.

Farmers and their supporters feel that especially the smaller farmers whose incomes are meagre will be hit by the new measures. First, their produce volumes are too small for them to be able to negotiate prices with traders who aren’t regulated—thereby they would likely be exploited. Second, although the government has assured that the mandi system will not be dismantled, farmers fear that the new “unregulated” mandis will consequently do exactly that, and that small and medium farmers will suffer. Lastly, contract farming, they fear is a way of giving the corporate sector easy access to the farm sector.

Nearly 60% of 1.3 billion Indians depend either directly or indirectly on agriculture, which accounts for 18% of the GDP. But the farm sector is severely skewed. Almost 70% of Indian farmers own land that is less than 2 hectares (20,000 sq. m) in area. And as much as a quarter of Indian farmers subsist below the poverty line. Moreover, because of lack of alternative employment opportunities millions of Indians depend on the farm sector without really contributing to productivity.

Against that background, reforms in the agriculture sector are overdue. But changing the system of pricing and procurement of crops without other structural changes in the sector cannot be a solution. In fact, it could lead to further suffering for millions of Indian farmers. The farmers’ protests are a sign of how acute the problem is. And, for the Modi government, it is the most critical test that it faces in its tenure thus far. In 2016, Prime Minister Modi announced a sudden decision to demonetise large currency bills. Ostensibly, it was with the intent of limiting or detecting unaccounted money in the system. What resulted was: widespread suffering for small traders, daily wage earners and other large segments of the population that operate in the “cash economy”. Those with so-called unaccounted wealth went largely unscathed.

Demonetisation was certainly a critical test that the government faced. But its effects—on economic growth and on small businesses—were not nearly as serious as the impact of the new farm laws have been. Over the last few days, the clashes between farmers and the authorities have turned more violent, particularly in the areas surrounding the capital city of Delhi. The authorities resorted to blocking of Internet in various areas around the capital and neighbouring states—purportedly in efforts to curb social media interactions. Police resorted to tear gas and baton charges against thousands of protestors. Already, the ripples of what is happening in India have reached the world outside. And questions are being asked about the true value of democracy in a country that prides itself as being run on the highest democratic principles.

ALSO READ: The World Is Taking Note Of Indian Farmers’ Protest

The police and authorities’ action against famers’ protests have also spilled over to affect others. A freelance journalist, Mandeep Punia, who was covering the protests, was arrested on the border between Delhi and Haryana last weekend. He was granted bail after spending two days in custody and much outrage. Others have had cases filed against them for reporting or broadcasting news that has been considered “anti-government”.

But the more serious issue is that India’s mainstream media has almost been rendered toothless in recent years, particularly after the current government came to power in 2014. It does not require media experts to see how the majority of mainstream TV news channels and print publications largely avoid taking on the government and critiquing its policies. When they choose to do so the critiques are of the milquetoast variety, tailored not to ruffle the feathers of those in power too much. In any democracy, the role of the media as the fourth estate should be that of a watchdog. In India, at least when you look at it from a dispassionately distanced point of view, it may seem that the mainstream media is more of a lapdog.

For the Modi government, the farmers’ agitation has other possible consequences. The farm sector’s voters aggregate as the largest block during any election. And although the government at the Centre is safely ensconced for the next four years, there are crucial state elections that are due and those could be impacted by which way farmers decide to vote. Also, if the agitations escalate and food supplies are affected across India, they could have other economic consequences such as inflation and distribution bottlenecks. Already reeling from the impact of the Covid pandemic, the economy could be hit further. For the Modi government the farmers’ agitation over the controversial laws could be something that could bring it to its knees.