Left to right: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and CM Eknath Shinde. (File photo)
FOLLOWING repeated allegations from Manoj Jarange Patil that he was proving to be a hurdle in Marathas getting reservation, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday offered to resign and take political sanyas if Chief Minister Eknath Shinde corroborates the charge levelled by the activist. Calling the allegations baseless, Shinde said the fact was that Fadnavis played a crucial role in the government making a law for Maratha reservation.
”If Chief Minister Eknath Shinde says he tried to take a decision regarding Maratha reservation and I tried to stall that decision, then I will resign from my post that moment and take political sanyas,” Fadnavis told reporters in Mumbai on Monday. In June after the Maha Vikas Aghadi outperformed Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha elections, Fadnavis had offered to resign.
Jarange has been targeting Fadnavis since the lathi-charge on villagers in Antarwali-Saraati in Jalna district in September 2023. At his press conferences and public rallies, Jarange has been alleging that Fadnavis has been a stumbling block in Marathas getting reservation. Fadnavis has on several occasions cited his efforts, from making a law on reservation to it being upheld by the High Court, as proof of his positive steps for the Maratha community.
“The issue of Maratha reservation has been hanging fire for long. Devendra Fadnavis has made some political calculations. These calculations are going to fail. He is going to regret his moves. If he does not understand us, then I am also helpless. If Fadnavis gives us reservation, we will hoist him on our shoulders. If he fails to give us reservation, then we will disrupt his political calculations. If Fadnavis laughs off our demands, then we will give him a befitting reply,” Jarange had said on August 16 in Antarwali Saraati.
Jarange has also been alleging that Fadnavis was behind the agitation started by the OBC community to stop Marathas from getting reservation in OBC category. ”OBC leader Chhagan Bhubjal has the backing of Fadnavis. It is Fadnavis who is the main driving force behind the OBC agitation against Marathas,” Jarange said.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Fadnavis said, “I know Manoj Jarange Patil has special admiration for me. At the same time, I want to emphasise that all decision-making powers of the state are with the Chief Minister. All other ministers work on the directives of the Chief Minister… Going forward, I want to state that the Chief Minister and I are working closely together. I fully support him. Therefore, Jarange should direct his question to the Chief Minister. If Chief Minister Eknath Shinde says that he was trying to take a decision regarding Maratha reservation and I tried to stall that effort, then I will resign from my post that moment…I will take political sanyas,” he said.
Fadnavis said to-date whatever decisions have been taken for Maratha reservation, they have been taken unitedly.
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”Chief Minister and I have jointly taken decisions regarding Maratha reservation. I have always backed the Chief Minister fully but attempts are being made to deliberately create a narrative against me. This is not right.”
In response to Fadnavis’s offer, the Chief Minister, while interacting with reporters in Mumbai, said, “Devendra Fadnavis, Ajit Pawar and I together took the decision to make law to give reservation to the Maratha community. We convened a special session on reservation. At every meeting, Fadnavis was present. Fadnavis played a crucial role in making the reservation law. Ajit Pawar was also part of it. As per the demands of Manoj Jarange Patil, we started giving Kunbi caste certificates whose Kunbi proof could be verified. We provided facilities as demanded by the Maratha community. After we made the law giving 10 per cent quota to Maratha reservation, who has gone to the court to challenge it?” He asked, alleging that the opposition was making attempts to stop the Maratha community from getting reservation.
Shinde said when Fadnavis was chief minister, his government had made efforts to give reservation to the Maratha community. “I was part of the decision-making process. It is baseless to say that Fadnavis was making attempts to stop the Maratha community from getting reservation. There is no truth in what Jarange Patil is alleging. Whatever decision we take are all taken unitedly,” he said
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
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