Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil has decided to march from Jalna district to Mumbai and continue his hunger strike there from September 19. It poses a law-and-order challenge to the Maharashtra government ahead of the Ganesh festival, beginning on September 14.
For the past two weeks, Jarange has been on his 11th hunger strike in Antarwali-Sarati, the village where a police lathicharge injured over 100 Maratha quota protesters in 2023. Jarange has specifically targeted chief minister Devendra Fadnavis since the police action.
On Saturday, after failing to get the kind of response he wanted from the Fadnavis government to his demands, Jarange announced that he and thousands of supporters would march from the village on September 15 and reach Mumbai by September 19.
During his past fasts, Jarange demanded that the Maratha community be included in the Other Backward Classes category and sought the issuance of Kunbi certificates to its members.
A committee appointed by the government to identify historical revenue and Kunbi records has identified as many as 58 lakh records. The committee applied the Hyderabad Gazette to eight districts of the Marathwada region to trace Nizam-era Kunbi records. The government says it has distributed 3,16,977 Kunbi caste certificates.
Demand for more Kunbi certificates
With his latest hunger strike, Jarange is pressuring the government to issue Kunbi caste certificates based on all 58 lakh identified records.
The trigger for Jarange’s latest fast came after the Caste Scrutiny Committee Rejected the Kunbi caste certificates of four public representatives from Marathwada. He demands the validation of their Kunbi certificates.
Besides, the activist also demands that the government apply the gazettes from Satara, Kolhapur, and other princely states to the Maratha population.
However, the government has said the matter is in court. ”When the matter of Hyderabad Gazette is already in court, how can we start implementing the Satara and Kolhapur gazettes? This will be like overruling the court,” said BJP leader Prasad Lad, one of those mediating between the government and the activist.
Lad said Jarange had put forth 15 demands. ”Of the 15 demands, the Fadnavis government has accepted 14 demands. One demand can not be met as the matter is sub judice,” he said.
While Jarange has been soft on Lad, he has been unsparing of some BJP and Shiv sena leaders and ministers such as Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Uday Samant, and Sanjay Shirsat. He has also started targeting deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde . He holds them responsible for the cancellation of Kunbi caste certificates of four public representatives.
In response to Jarange’s continued tirade, the government decided not to send a delegation to Antarwali-Sarati, which provoked the activist to plan the Mumbai march.
Fadnavis’s ‘expectation of Shivaji followers’
If Jarange reaches Mumbai’s Azad Maidan for the hunger strike, the police and local administration will find it difficult to handle the huge crowd at a time when the Ganesh festival would be underway.
