Jarange Patil says will march to Mumbai again for ‘final battle’, govt urges to call off protest

Calling it a “final and decisive” battle, Manoj Jarange-Patil said lakhs of people would reach Azad Maidan in Mumbai for a peaceful protest.

A fortnight into his indefinite hunger strike to press for Maratha reservations, quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil has announced that he will go ahead with his march to Mumbai and continue his agitation at Azad Maidan from September 19. Calling it a “final and decisive” battle, he said lakhs of people would reach Azad Maidan for a peaceful protest – for the second time in just over a year.

Maratha leader Manoj Jarange Patil addresses the crowd at Azad Maidan demanding ST status for the Dhangar community. (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

Making the announcement in his village Antarwali Sarati on Saturday, Jarange-Patil has timed his Mumbai protest to coincide with the Ganesh festival. His decision has the government on tenterhooks as memories of last year’s agitation are still fresh – 25,000 Maratha protestors had poured into the city in August, disrupting life in parts of South Mumbai for days. The government has therefore urged the activist to withdraw his agitation.

But Jarange-Pati is standing his ground. He said the Maharashtra government had failed to honour assurances given during his protest in Mumbai last year and again during his hunger strike in May this year. However, he offered the government a way out. “The state government has lost the opportunity to stop us from marching to Mumbai but it can still come to Antarwali for talks before we begin our march, or meet us on the way to Mumbai. The government can also hold talks with us at Azad Maidan and fulfil demands that have been pending for three years,” he said.

Patil's demand and recollections of previous stir

The quota activist said he will begin his march to Mumbai on September 15, a day after the Ganesh festival begins. He and his supporters will first halt in Patoda in Beed, followed by a halt in Shrigonda in Ahilyanagar the next day and another halt in Hadapsar, Pune on September 17. After a night halt in Khopoli on September 18, they will reach Azad Maidan at 11:00am on September 19.

While the state government claims that 12 of the 15 demands raised by Jarange-Patil have been fulfilled, the activist claims it has not kept its word. During his indefinite hunger strike in Mumbai last year, the government had assured that the Satara, Kolhapur and Bombay gazetteers would be implemented within a month, he says. A similar assurance was given during his hunger strike in May, but this had not been implemented.

Maharashtra politicians cite law and order concerns

Reacting to the quota activist’s decision to go ahead with his march, state revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that, right now, the drought-like situation in the state was more important than Jarange-Patil’s agitation. He appealed to all protesters, including those from the Maratha and OBC communities, to avoid holding agitations in Mumbai during the Ganesh festival, citing concerns over law and order.

Meanwhile, Amruta Fadnavis, wife of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, has once again urged Jaranje-Patil to make sure his protest does not disrupt the Ganesh festival. “These are festive days. Keeping this in mind, I am sure my brother will do whatever he has to do peacefully,” she said in Ahilyanagar on Saturday.

Referring to him as her ‘brother” on an earlier occasion as well, Fadnavis had invited Jarange-Patil to her home for a meal. Responding to the invitation, the quota activist urged women from the Maratha community to visit the homes of Amruta Fadnavis and Lata Shinde, wife of deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, and hold ‘haldi-kumkum’ programmes to press for reservations for Marathas.