Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil during a hunger strike in Jalna. (PTI)
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A day after Devendra Fadnavis once again drew the ire of Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil for announcing that the state government will charge agitators for torching properties with murder charges, state BJP leaders on Wednesday asked Jarange-Patil to “stop insulting the deputy chief minister”.
Deputy CM Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio, had on Tuesday warned people against resorting to violence, after arson and stone pelting were reported from several areas of the state.
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”The Deputy CM has taken a strict stance against those who set fire to properties of political leaders. Instead of supporting the action, he has criticised Fadnavis. Does this mean Jarange-Patil is supporting this violence? His script is being written by someone else. If this is true, then as the state government and Maratha community, we will have to think about it,” said BJP leader Nitesh Rane.
Another BJP leader Prasad Lad said, “We all have supported the agitation for reservation launched by Manoj Jarange-Patil. But his comments on Fadnavis (in his press conference) are highly objectionable. It was Fadnavis who had first given reservation to Marathas.”
“The reservation was also upheld by the High Court. In contrast, Maharashtra’s Maratha CMs—from Yashwantrao Chavan and Vasantdada Patil to Babasaheb Bhosale—all failed to get reservation for Marathas. Even Uddhav Thackeray failed in this matter. Instead of criticising those who failed, the manner in which Jarange-Patil is targeting Fadnavis, smacks of political vendetta. I suspect someone else is writing his script,” Lad added.
Lad said Jarange-Patil had promised a peaceful agitation. “However, the agitation has turned violent. They are torching properties of political leaders. Is Jarange-Patil supporting the vandalism?”
The government is pushing for Maratha reservation, Lad said, and the matter was subjudice. “By insulting Fadnavis, what is Jarange-Patil trying to gain? I request him to let us all join hands in the fight for Maratha, and avoid speaking against our leaders,” he said.
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While BJP rushed to the defence of Fadnavis, Opposition leaders sought his resignation. Eknath Khadse, from the Sharad Pawar faction of NCP, said, “The Maratha quota issue is raging again, with unrest and violence in several districts. The law and order situation in the state has broken down. Properties are being torched and state buses are being damaged. But Fadnavis was busy campaigning for Madhya Pradesh polls. As Home Minister, Fadnavis should take moral responsibility and resign,” demanded Khadse.
What Fadnavis said
After the Tuesday cabinet meeting, Fadnavis had accused some people of resorting to violence by taking advantage of the agitation. “Yesterday in Beed, properties of some political leaders including houses, hotels and even hospitals were burnt. People belonging to certain sections of society were also targeted. Some houses were torched when families were present there,” said Fadnavis.
“The government has taken serious note of such acts. The police and Home Ministry will take stern action against the miscreants. We have procured video footage of the incidents. Some 55 people have been identified so far.
Police will file an attempt to murder case under Section 307 against such people,” he said.
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The Maharashtra Dy CM said if attempts are made to kill people and burn their properties, police will not remain mute spectators. “We will take stern action against those who indulge in such acts,” he said.
Jarange-Patil’s response
Minutes after Fadnavis announced the strict action against the miscreants, Jarange-Patil minced no words in attacking the home minister.
Interacting with reporters in Antarwali-Saraati, he said, “What else has he (Fadnavis) done in his life? He has only targeted people. We don’t know who burnt the properties. They must have been your own people. BJP is being routed in every state because of people like him (Fadnavis) who make idle talk.”
Asking Fadnavis to go ahead with his threat, Jarange-Patil said, “Since you have decided that there should be unrest in Maharashtra, do what you want to do. Go ahead and file the attempt to murder cases against us, we want to see how powerful you are.”
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This was Jarange-Patil’s second attack on Fadnavis since he launched his agitation. A day after the brutal attack on villagers by police in Antarwali-Saraati last month, Jarange-Patil had demanded that Fadnavis should be thrown out of, not only BJP, but also Maharashtra.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
