How the Maratha quota row brought Mumbai to a standstill

South Mumbai was brought down to its knees when Manoj Jarange Patil and his supporters stormed the streets in the name of the Maratha quota demand. Traffic came to a standstill, emergency services were hampered and businesses in India’s most prominent business district bore the brunt with losses estimated at Rs 100–150 crore per day. Even suburban trains saw 30% higher crowding as thousands of office-goers were stranded in India’s financial capital, known to be the most efficient and disciplined city of India. What should have been a peaceful demand for rights turned into a weapon of disruption, inconveniencing lakhs of ordinary citizens, to say the least.

The demand for Maratha reservation is not new. It dates back to the 1990s, gaining momentum after the Mandal Commission was implemented. For decades, successive Congress and NCP governments made loud promises but delivered nothing beyond hollow assurances. Even the former chief minister Sharad Pawar, the most powerful Maratha leader of his time, who ruled Maharashtra for decades, directly or through his protégés, never institutionalised a sustainable quota framework for his own community.

In fact recently, Shashikant Pawar, the National President of the Akhil Bharatiya Maratha Mahasangh, hit out at Sharad Pawar over the Maratha reservation issue. He recalled that during Sharad Pawar’s tenure as chief minister, he had recommended to the then Prime Minister VP Singh that reservation be extended to, the Maratha community under the Mandal Commission framework. Prime Minister VP Singh explained that any recommendation for Maratha Reservation must come from the State, with proper data to establish backwardness. However, Sharad Pawar chose to ignore the matter at that time, he alleged.

For decades, Maharashtra’s politics has thrived on agitation, not resolution. Successive governments dangled the quota issue like a carrot on the stick — never solving it, only milking it as a bargaining chip. Even when attempts were made (such as the 2014 ordinance under Prithviraj Chavan), they were legally weak, collapsed in courts and pushed the community back to square one.

It took BJP’s non-Maratha chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, to do what others never dared, pass a legally sound Maratha reservation bill in 2018, backed with data and evidence. For the first time ever, the quota stood firm in the Bombay High Court. This was not empty rhetoric, but a genuine step forward that gave the community real hope.

But after all that groundwork, when the case finally reached the Supreme Court in 2021, the Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi government displayed shocking negligence. Instead of fighting with preparation and seriousness, it fumbled and let the reservation collapse. Years of groundwork was buried, and the Maratha community was betrayed once again. The difference is glaring.

Maharashtra’s BJP government gave Marathas a reservation that survived judicial tests. The Maha Vikas Aghadi let it die. And now, the same opposition forces are back to their old game — fanning agitations, propping up agitators like Manoj Jarange Patil, and ensuring that the BJP government and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis remain on the defensive. Their fear is simple: if the community recognises who actually delivered, their decades-long monopoly over Maratha politics will be finished.

Instead of taking responsibility for their failures, these groups are busy amplifying chaos, hoping to convert unrest into votes. They want the fire to keep burning — emotions high, streets disrupted, and the community dependent on their politics of agitation.

Against this backdrop, Manoj Jarange Patil has become the frontman. His protests may look spontaneous, but the script is clear: strategic timing, selective targeting, and urban disruption. The chaos in Mumbai was no accident, it was part of a cycle where ordinary citizens suffer, while political opportunists quietly pull the strings. But the Maratha community must remember one truth: agitation does not equal achievement.

The BJP is often accused of being a “Brahmin party,” a label its opponents have used for decades to corner it politically. Yet when it comes to the Maratha community, it is the BJP that has consistently taken the most serious steps for their welfare. The first milestone came under Devendra Fadnavis in 2014–15, when his government framed a reservation policy that stood the test of law and gave the community a genuine, sustainable path forward. The latest step under the Modi–Fadnavis government in 2025 has opened the door for Marathas with Kunbi records to claim OBC benefits through caste certificates, a recognition of the historical truth and a practical way to extend relief.

Today, Maratha youth is standing at the crossroads. Either keep walking the road of broken promises, street chaos, and manipulation by politicians who thrive on agitation, or choose the path of real delivery such as scholarships, jobs, hostels, loans, and a legally sound reservation framework that can actually stand the test of law.

This is the moment to break the cycle of disruption and dependency. The bright future of the Marathas lies not in endless protests, but in education, enterprise, and empowerment. True to the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the community can rise again as a pillar of strength for Viksit Bharat 2047. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’, most certainly the progress of the Marathas will remain inseparable from the nation’s progress.

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