MUMBAI, Oct. 27 -- While protests against the September 2 Government Resolution (GR)-which enables Marathas to get Kunbi certificates, paving the way for their inclusion in the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) category-are rising, experts and some OBC leaders have pointed out that the government had allowed people with Kunbi lineage to be included in the OBC category by issuing a GR as far back as June 2004, and the fresh GR is no different from it. Although food and civil supplies minister and OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal has been leading the front, demanding that the September 2 GR be scrapped, the experts point out that the 2004 GR was issued when Bhujbal was deputy chief minister of the state. Bhujbal and other OBC leaders, in their rally in Beed last week, pushed for the scrapping of the GR issued after Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil's agitation in Mumbai. The GR says Marathas should be issued Kunbi certificates on the basis of the 1918 Hyderabad Gazetteer, as it has references to the lineage of Marathas as Kunbis. Sachin Rajurkar, general secretary of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh, said both the GR issued on June 1, 2004 and on September 2 this year were similar in nature. "The GR issued 21 years ago has already termed the Marathas with Kunbi lineage as OBCs and allowed their inclusion in the OBC category," he said. "This was on the recommendation of the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes (MSCBC) after a survey and hearings that went on between 2001 and 2003." The state, through the 2004 GR, allowed the inclusion of nine castes and subcastes in the OBC category from the 151 recommended by MSCBC. The Congress-NCP government led by CM Sushilkumar Shinde issued the GR just three months before the assembly polls that year. Chandrakant Bavkar, former president of the Kunbi Samajonnati Sangh, said, "It is true that the 2004 GR has already paved the way for Kunbi certificates to Kunbi-Marathas, Maratha-Kunbis and other similar castes, but the September 2 GR goes a step further. We believe that not only those with a Kunbi lineage but even pure Marathas have received Kunbi certificates on the basis of the 5.8 million documents collated by the Justice Shinde committee." Bavkar had appeared before the MSCBC in 2003 and said they had opposed the inclusion of Kunbi-Marathas and Maratha-Kunbis even then. A member of the MSCBC, on condition of anonymity, also pointed out that no gazette had any reference to castes or sub-caste but only to their population. "For instance, a 1931 gazette on Chandrapur says there were only 2 Manas (scheduled tribe) in Chandrapur without any further details," he said. "Now it would be difficult to find out if their population grew further, and if yes, are they the same as the ones referred to in the gazette?" Marathas have already been issued over 800,000 Kunbi certificates in the last two years on the basis of the 5.8 million documents establishing the Kunbi lineage of Marathas ferreted out by the Shinde Committee from past records. Officials from the revenue department, however, say that even though the certificates have been issued, their validation is a Herculean task, as lineage cannot be proven without proper documents....