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Manoj Jarange ends 20-day fast, vows to resume if govt doesn't ‘fulfil promise’
This comes a day after he said he will resume his journey to Mumbai to stage an agitation on Thursday afternoon.
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Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil ended his 20-day hunger strike on Thursday after a minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil-led delegation met him and assured action on his demands within three months. He appealed to his supporters gathered in Mumbai after his call for a march to the city as part of his agitation to return home.
“I have ended the hunger strike and will resume it if the government does not fulfil its promise,” he announced at Patoda in Beed after meeting Patil, who heads the State Cabinet Sub-Committee on Maratha reservation, his ministerial colleague Dada Bhuse, and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party legislators Prasad Lad and Suresh Dhas.
Last week, minister Patil said the government had taken “unprecedented” measures, including facilitating Kunbi certificates for the eligible Marathas to be included in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category. He said they implemented reservation benefits and funded welfare schemes. Patil said over 350,000 Maratha youths had benefited from the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes quota. He added that a similar number had obtained Kunbi certificates.
Simplifying the process of issuing Kunbi certificates to Marathas is Jarange-Patil’s main demand. Kunbi, a peasant sub-caste of Maratha, gets a quota under the OBC category.
The government has promised a revised government resolution (GR) on the issuance of Kunbi certificates.
On Wednesday, the state government softened its position and sent a draft proposal to Jarange-Patil, appealing to him to call off the strike and cancel his planned march to Mumbai as it could disrupt the Ganesh festivities. Mumbai Police refused Jarange-Patil permission to hold a hunger strike at Azad Maidan.
The minister Patil-led panel spoke to him through video conferencing before arriving in Patoda early Thursday for negotiations.
Jarange-Patil on Wednesday said he was determined to reach Mumbai on Friday and lead the protest but was open to dialogue. He had warned that tens of thousands of Marathas would proceed to Mumbai if he was stopped. Jarange-Patil left Antarwali Sarati in Jalna district on Tuesday and halted overnight at Patoda. He was unable to proceed to Shrigonda in Ahilyanagar district due to his deteriorating health. Doctors treating Jarange-Patil advised hospitalisation.
He acknowledged that the government had accepted most of his demands and set four conditions on Wednesday. He called for the revision of the government resolution and streamlining the issuance of Kunbi certificates. "Kunbi certificates should be issued based on all 5.8 million records related to Kunbi lineage collected by the government. The government should also ensure that caste validity committees clear all the certificates issued by the government,” he said.
