Jarange-Patil firm on Mumbai agitation if Maratha quota not accorded by Jan 20

Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil refuses to cancel foot march to Mumbai unless the state government declares reservation for the Maratha community by January 20.

MUMBAI: The attempt to persuade Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil to refrain from holding a foot march to Mumbai failed on Monday even after several assurances made by chief minister Eknath Shinde. Jarange-Patil reiterated that he and his supporters would come to Mumbai if the state government did not declare reservation for the entire Maratha community by January 20.

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“Whether we should be going to Mumbai on January 24 or not is in the hands of the government,” he said after his meeting with the chief minister through video-conferencing on Tuesday evening. “Prepare all the data and take a decision on Maratha reservation before January 20, after which we will not listen to anything. We have already given you seven months.”

Jarange-Patil has been demanding reservation for the Maratha community in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota. To this end, the latest weapon in his arsenal is a foot march from Jalna to Mumbai, culminating in an indefinite hunger strike in the financial capital on January 24.

The online interaction between the chief minister and the Maratha activist took place after the cabinet sub-committee meeting on Maratha reservation. All the members of the sub-committee were also present for the placatory meeting with Jarange-Patil.

This was the first time that the Maratha activist was participating in such a meeting. He took the opportunity to complain about non-cooperation from lower-rank officers in searching for records that could prove that Marathas were Kunbis (a Maratha sub-caste which already gets reservation in the OBC category) in the past.

In response, the beleaguered chief minister said he would conduct a special drive in the state to retrieve the records. “We have directed the committee headed by retired judge Sandeep Shinde to do this,” he said. “All the tehsil offices will be inspected to collate these records.”

So far, the government has found 54 lakh records of Marathas with Kunbi antecedents. Based on these records, the state government has started issuing Kunbi certificates to Marathas in the state.

Jarange-Patil, however, wants even relatives by marriage to be given reservation benefits based on Kunbi antecedent records. The state government has already made it clear that the demand is not practical and will not stand up to legal scrutiny.

During the cabinet sub-committee meeting, the chief minister asked the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes to give priority to the survey of the Maratha community, ensure accuracy and complete it in a time-bound manner.

To determine Marathas’ eligibility for reservation in jobs and education, the state government recently tasked the Commission to conduct a survey. The survey will focus on changes in the community’s living conditions over the past 10 to 15 years, including education, literacy rates, superstitions and poverty levels. The survey is expected to be completed within a month and will be conducted by the Pune-based Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.