Shinde, Fadnavis rush to Delhi as Maratha quota activist resumes hunger strike after deadline ends

Even as Jarange-Patil said he was resuming his hunger strike, a seemingly helpless CM Shinde & his deputy Fadnavis rushed to Delhi to ‘hold meetings’, it is learnt. 

Bracing for a fresh round of protests over the Maratha reservation and seemingly able to do little except giving verbal assurances, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis reached Delhi Wednesday to “hold meetings” with the central government,has learnt.  

This comes even as Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, who has been spearheading protests for the reservation, announced he was resuming his hunger strike “indefinitely” until his demands are met. 

A source in the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Office Wednesday that the agenda for the meeting was to find a solution to the issue, adding that the leaders will be back later Wednesday, in time for PM Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Shirdi Thursday.  

Significantly, Jarange-Patil, who first began a hunger strike on 29 August to demand Marathas get Kunbi caste certificates placing them in the OBC category, announced Wednesday that he would press on with an indefinite strike. This came a day after the 40-day deadline he had set for the state government to implement the reservation came to an end.

Announcing the resumption of the protest he had suspended in September, Jarange-Patil said he would not take “any medical assistance, food, water or saline” this time. 

“We will intensify our protest, but it won’t be aggressive. Candlelight marches will be organised. We request politicians from all parties not to come to our villages until reservation is given to the Marathas,” Jarange-Patil said from his protest site at Jalna’s Antarwali Sarathi village.

Significantly, Marathas, who comprise about 33 percent of Maharashtra’s population, have been demanding reservations for jobs and education for nearly four decades.

In 2018, sporadic protests led the Maharashtra government to enact a law granting 16 percent reservation for the caste group under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) category, but it was challenged in the Supreme Court and was eventually struck down.

Protests for reservation have once again been renewed over the last two months and took a violent turn on 1 September, when police lathicharge at Jarange-Patil’s protest led to his hospitalisation.  

These protests also come months before parliamentary election and Maharashtra assembly polls.

On his part, Praful Patel, former civil aviation minister and a leader of the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party which is part of the government, urged Jarange-Patil to have patience and promised a resolution.

“We have a very clear position. The state government is equally clear that the Maratha community should get justice… they should get the benefit of reservation. Whatever the legal and technical difficulties, all the three parties in the government are brainstorming how to remove them,” he told reporters Wednesday.