Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister and senior OBC leader of the NCP Chhagan Bhujbal Monday took on the state government over its handling of the Maratha reservation issue and questioned its stance to mollycoddle activist Manoj Jarange Patil. Bhujbal added that Other Backward Classes cannot expect justice from the government as the ministers are only kowtowing before Patil. "The reservations for the OBCs are in danger. There is a conspiracy to end OBC reservation. Lot of people, including those in the top echelons of the Mantralaya and the people on the ground, are conspiring to end reservations. There is a need to speak up. So far so much terror has been created that no one is willing to speak," Bhujbal said on Monday. He also questioned the “mollycoddling of Maratha activists” who had assaulted police personnel during the reservation agitation and said that “this kid glove treatment” would affect law and order and “hurt the morale of the police personnel”. "Those who are taking these decisions now, I want to ask them; don't you want the OBCs to vote for you? I am being told and threatened that Marathas will not vote for me. Let me remind all the politicians in the state that the OBCs can do the same to you as well," Bhujbal said. He also questioned the decision of the state to send a delegation of former judges and ministers to talk to Jarange Patil. "Our people are going and meeting him. Our ministers are going and meeting him. Even judges are going and pleading before him. What justice can OBCs expect from these people who go and say ‘sir sir’ before him (Jarange Patil)," Bhujbal said.
