Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, decided against going to the Jalna district on Wednesday to see Manoj Jarange-Patil, a Maratha quota campaigner who had promised to end his ongoing hunger strike provided Shinde and a few other politicians saw him.
However, the chief minister said that his administration was working to comply with the Maratha people’s request for a quota.
On September 16, when they are slated to go to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar [previously Aurangabad], about 70 km from Jalna, for a cabinet meeting, Shinde and a few other state ministers are anticipated to meet Jarange-Patil, a CMO official said while asking anonymity.
Jarange-Patil, a farmer from Antarwali-Sarathi village in Jalna, has been on an ongoing hunger strike since August 29 in protest of the Marathas from the Marathwada region’s lack of quota under the Other Backward Classes category, which would be granted if they were recognized as Kunbis, a subcaste.
Tuesday afternoon, Jarange-Patil said that he would cease his protest only after seeing Shinde, the deputy chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, as well as Udayanraje Bhosale and Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, two of the descendants of the Maratha monarch Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Shinde and Ajit Pawar were planned to see Jarange-Patil on Wednesday night in response to the demand, but it was abruptly postponed. Officials claim that Pawar won’t go to Jalna; instead, a few other ministers will meet with the activist.
“A government delegation has discussed Jarange’s requests with him. Once the delegation has given us a report, we will decide whether to go to Jalna. Jarange and I have been speaking all the time,” Shinde stated on Wednesday.
According to a leader of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena who spoke on condition of anonymity, “the government does not want to bow before any pressure tactic, especially after accepting all possible demands related to the Maratha reservation.” The activist’s demand is inappropriate, particularly given how well the government handled the demonstration, the leader said.
However, an insider who wished to remain anonymous said that the chief minister has been embarrassed by a widely shared video on social media. Shinde is seen urging his deputies Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar in the video, which was allegedly recorded before the commencement of a news conference after an all-party meeting on Monday, “Let’s get it off our heads and go.”
Some Opposition politicians harshly criticized the video, alleging that the chief minister wasn’t sincere about the reserve problem.
On Wednesday, Shinde claimed that the footage had been altered. He said that it was improper to damage the state’s reputation by manipulating events and dialogues on social media. I asked Fadnavis and Pawar to limit their conversation to the fast (hunger strike) and to avoid any other political subjects.
He said that there were efforts underway to sour relations between the Maratha community and the government.
In response to Jarange-Patil’s requests, Shinde said after the all-party meeting on Monday that three senior police officers engaged in the lathi-charge on protestors in Jalna on September 1 would be suspended and that charges against the demonstrators had been dropped earlier in the month. Shinde also gave the panel established to determine how to provide Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas in the Marathawada area a month-long deadline.
