Bhujbal announces statewide OBC agitation from Tuesday

Bhujbal proclaimed that the protests would kick off across the state from Tuesday, and a march to Mumbai would also be held if the OBC quota was touched by the state government to please the Maratha community

MUMBAI: As the indefinite hunger strike of Manoj Jarange-Patil entered its fifth day on Tuesday, the Other Backward Classes (OBC), whose quota the Maratha activist wants to eat into, declared their own offensive. The plan was announced by senior minister and the NCP’s OBC face Chhagan Bhujbal on Monday.

NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal talked to the media on Monday after a meeting with OBC leaders. He said a march would be held if the OBC quota is touched by the state government. (Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times)

Bhujbal proclaimed that the protests would kick off across the state from Tuesday, and a march to Mumbai would also be held if the OBC quota was touched by the state government to please the Maratha community. The minister made the announcement after holding a meeting of OBC leaders from different parts of the state.

Before the meeting, Bhujbal met chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, and deputy CMs Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, and showed them past verdicts of the Bombay high court and Supreme Court refusing reservation to the Maratha community. He also threatened to challenge the government’s decision if it decided to accept any demand of Jarange-Patil. “I told them that the day they decided to go against these court verdicts, we would also approach the court,” he said.

Citing a Supreme Court judgment, Bhujbal stated, “The Maratha community is not a socially backward one; in fact, it is a socially advanced and prestigious community. Therefore, the request for including Marathas in the OBC category backward classes along with the Kunbi community stands rejected.”

Kunbi is a peasant sub-caste of Marathas which falls in the OBC category and gets reservation under the OBC quota. Jarange-Patil wants all Marathas to be issued Kunbi certificates. To accord legal standing to his demand, he has sought the implementation of the Hyderabad Gazette, which was issued by the Nizam’s government and allegedly classified all Marathas as Kunbis.

Bhujbal, however, claimed that the Hyderabad Gazette had also bifurcated Marathas and Kunbi into different communities. “According to the Hyderabad Gazette of 1921, of the total population of 1,24,71,000, the Kunbis were 34,324 and the Marathas 14,07,200,” he said.

The minister also ridiculed Jarange-Patil’s statement that all those in the farming profession were Kunbis. “Brahmins and other communities too are into farming. So should they also be considered farmers and ultimately Kunbis?” he asked.

Bhujbal’s announcement has come at a time when OBCs, under the leadership of the National OBC Mahasangh, are already holding a chain hunger strike in Nagpur.

This is not the first time that OBC organisations have come together to oppose Jarange-Patil. Last year, they held several rallies after Jarange-Patil began marching to Mumbai but was stopped at Navi Mumbai. The Eknath Shinde-led government had then issued a draft notification, providing Kunbi certificates to Marathas with Kunbi antecedents and their blood relatives and relatives by marriage in the same caste. The notification was not implemented after protests by the OBCs.