Remarking that the Maratha community had never discriminated against anyone on the basis of caste or community, Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil on Monday said that some leaders whom the community had helped make big were now denying the Marathas their just quota.
Addressing a massive rally in Pune’s Kharadi area, Mr. Jarange-Patil, who has emerged as the most prominent face of the renewed Maratha reservation agitation, warned that the community would strike down those who dared to speak out against Maratha reservation.
Without taking his name, the activist once again targeted other backward class (OBC) leader Chhagan Bhujbal - a senior leader of the ruling Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction – by stating the latter ought not to speak anything merely because he was getting on in his years.
“Whoever speaks against Maratha reservation will be struck down. That person could be from the Maratha community or anyone else. You [politicians of various parties] have deceived us for more than 70 years. But crores of Marathas have understood this now. There is no doubt we will get blanket reservation under the OBC Kunbi community before December 24. Remember, we have not sought time from this government, but it is they who have asked us to grant them time to complete the process,” said Mr. Jarange-Patil.
The activist, who has been fiercely rattling sabres with Mr. Bhujbal, an important OBC leader, denied he was wantonly persecuting the latter.
“We want to know names of those leaders who have denied us reservation thus far. The Marathas have never discriminated on the basis of caste. We have always been a very magnanimous community. My forefathers have provided succour to members of other communities often at the cost of their own children. They considered children of other castes as their own. The Marathas never raised any complaint when other castes got reservation. Yet today, the very leaders whom the Marathas helped are not ready to come to our aid now,” Mr. Jarange-Patil said, adding, “What wrong have the Marathas done that our children have to run from pillar to post in search of employment today?”
Stating there would be “no holiday” for the State government till a quota was given the Marathas by December 24, the activist said the community was only securing its rightful reservation without snatching that of anyone else’s.
“We do not want to snatch the quota given to the OBCs. But the rule says that 50% reservation should be based on population. The Mandal Commission, in 1990, gave the OBCs 14% which means their population is 28% The Marathas have not decided this. The OBC reservation limit was raised to 30% in 1994. My question is how did your population become 60% in just four years?” he said.
Mr. Jarange-Patil said that there were thousands of proofs showing Marathas and the Kunbis to be one and the same, and that these proofs dating back from 1805 had been ‘suppressed’ till now.
Meanwhile, speaking in Nashik, Mr. Bhujbal refuted suggestions of having ever spoken out against the Maratha community. He said he was compelled to respond to Mr. Jarange-Patil as the latter had repeatedly insulted him by hurling crude invective at him.
“I never said anything against the Maratha community. But for the last two months, during his 14 rallies, he [Jarange-Patil] has used extremely crude language against me. I had never objected to his hunger fasts. But I have to reply to someone who sends me insulting messages and launches vulgar diatribes against me,” Mr. Bhujbal said.
He said that while he had kept silent despite Jarange-Patil’s remarks against him, he decided to oppose the Maratha quota activist after several arson incidents pertaining to the torching of OBC establishments occurred.
Responding to suggestions about Congressman, OBC leader and Maharashtra Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Vijay Wadettiwar distancing himself from Mr. Bhujbal despite the two leaders sharing stage at an OBC rally recently, Mr. Bhujbal said he was not aware of what exactly Mr. Wadettiwar’s stance was.
