Mumbai: Maharashtra’s Different Backward Courses (OBCs) staged their first protest rally at Jalna within the Marathwada area Friday with Chhagan Bhujbal, a minister within the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra authorities, as their star speaker.
The protest rally, which got here on the heels of an intense stir by the Maratha group, marked contemporary bother for the Shinde administration.
Bhujbal, a minister from the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP), shared the stage with rival Congress’s Vijay Wadettiwar. The MLA from Nashik’s Yeola, Bhujbal is seen as among the many most distinguished OBC faces in Maharashtra politics.
Talking on the protest rally, Bhujbal not directly slammed his authorities’s promise of not consuming into the OBC quota whereas granting Kunbi certificates to eligible Marathas, as hole.
He additionally demanded a right away statewide caste census, questioned his authorities on why it’s but to order a probe into violence that erupted throughout protests by Marathas demanding reservation, lashed out at Maratha chief Manoj Jarange Patil — with out naming him — and ridiculed ministers for “bowing down” to the activist.
“I was asked if some Nizam-era evidence of Kunbis is found, should we consider them? I said give, we have Kunbis among us. But what happened after that, on one day it was said we had found 5,000 pieces of evidence… and in two days, the number reached 11,500?
“Then there was a cabinet meeting and the number reached 13,500. The next day, the number rose by another 2,000. If one person gets the (OBC) certificate, all of his 100-200 relatives also get it. Even today, Dalits, Adivasis, nomads etc. have to wait for years and years for caste certificates and you (Marathas) get them so fast,” Bhujbal stated.
He additionally alleged that “documents are being forged to show Kunbi origin”.
“This should stop. You say the OBC quota won’t be touched. How? Once he gets a Kunbi certificate, he becomes an OBC,” added the previous deputy chief minister.
The state witnessed a contemporary wave of protests by the Maratha group demanding quota in authorities jobs and schooling in August-September after which once more earlier this month. Maratha group chief Manoj Jarange Patil was on an indefinite quick looking for reservation for Marathas as Kunbis.
Kunbis, an OBC caste, are eligible to avail of reservation as a part of the OBC quota.
Leaders of the Maratha group declare all Marathas have their roots within the agrarian Kunbi clan and must be given reservation in authorities jobs and schooling as Kunbis.
A separate quota for Marathas is embroiled in a court docket battle, with the Supreme Courtroom having struck it down in 2021, calling it “unconstitutional”. The state authorities has filed a healing petition on this regard.
Maratha group activist Manoj Jarange Patil, who has been main the protests for a Maratha quota, has given the state authorities time till 2 January to determine all Marathas whose ancestors had Kunbi paperwork and grant them caste certificates.
The protest rally in Jalna marked the second time Bhujbal questioned his authorities over granting Kunbi certificates to eligible Marathas from throughout Maharashtra. Final week, the minister had expressed considerations about this being akin to a “backdoor entry” for Marathas into the OBC quota, inflicting a rift inside the ruling alliance comprising the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
Bhujbal’s fiery speech Friday comes only a week after Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde requested all cupboard ministers to keep away from making controversial statements on the Maratha quota, in accordance with cupboard sources.
Members of the OBC group plan to carry related rallies in every of Maharashtra’s 36 districts.
Additionally Learn: Studying ‘Modi’ script, mapping household bushes — how Maharashtra’s scouring outdated data to determine Kunbis
‘Attacks on police led to lathi charge’
The stir for a Maratha quota has been a longstanding problem in Maharashtra.
With the difficulty being sub judice, the contemporary wave of protests this 12 months was triggered by one defining second — a lathi cost on supporters of Jarange Patil, who had sat on an indefinite starvation strike, in Jalna.
Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP, who can also be residence minister of the state, had personally apologised to the Maratha group for the lathi cost.
Nonetheless, Bhujbal has now alleged that neither the police nor Fadnavis furnished the entire reality concerning the lathi cost incident. Maratha protestors had pelted stones at policemen, together with ladies constables, who had been urging Jarange Patil to surrender his starvation strike and admit himself to the hospital contemplating his deteriorating well being, claimed Bhujbal.
“Seventy police personnel had to be admitted to the hospital due to injuries. Who hit them? The hospitals have records. The police’s version never came forward,” he stated.
He added, “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj sent the mothers of the Mughals back, calling them ‘Aai’ (mother) and you attacked women in our police? You should be ashamed.”
Chhagan Bhujbal: ‘Is there rule of law or not?’
Bhujbal stated a caste census in Maharashtra will show which group has greater numbers and supply insights on the requirement for quantum of quota. He added that leaders from throughout events equivalent to himself, BJP’s Chandrashekhar Bawankule, in addition to leaders of the 2 NCP factions, Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, have known as for a caste census.
In his speech, Bhujbal ridiculed the battery of ministers and senior judges who went to request Jarange Patil to surrender his starvation strike. “Our ministers had taken senior judges and were seen bending before him (Manoj Jarange Patil), and the judges are calling him sir when you don’t even know if he has passed the fifth standard,” Bhujbal stated.
He added that there was a scientific try at attacking homes and workplaces of politicians and questioned why there was no inquiry into the violence in any respect.
“They (Maratha community members) shut entry into villages for MLAs, ministers. Do they have a 7/12 (a property document) for all of Maharashtra? I want to tell the police, these boards talking about gaonbandi (prohibition of entry into villages) must be taken down immediately. This is a democratic state. Is there a government or not? Is there (rule of) law or not?”
Bhujbal additionally issued a veiled warning to his authorities: “the OBCs will not remain silent if the government acts in a partisan manner.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Additionally Learn: Why Jarange-Patil’s touring Maharashtra — quest to determine himself as statewide chief, counsel youth