ACCUSING Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil of trying to belittle and show the OBC community in poor light, Maharashtra Minister and OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal demanded that the Justice (retd) Sandeep Shinde Committee set up to provide reservation to Maratha community be scrapped and the process of issuing Kunbi caste certificates be stayed immediately.
”The poor from the Maratha community should get reservation. But the government should not run bull dozer over OBC communty. We have some demands. Whatever SARATHI institute has got, OBC community should also get. The Justice Shinde Committee should be dissolved because the Supreme Court has said that Maratha community is not a backward caste. Shinde Committee has no rights,” Bhujbal at an OBC Elgar rally in Hingoli district on Sunday. Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar, another OBC leader, gave the rally a miss.
The Justice Sandeep Shinde Committee was set up to examine the Nizam-era Kunbi records and explore the possibility of providing reservation to the community.The committee was formed after Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil’s hunger strike and the community’s agitation for reservation in September turned violent, leading to a police lathicharge. It was assigned with identifying the process to give Kunbi certificate to Marathas and which documents can be considered as an evidence for the same. In the second phase of his agitation, Patil went on fast-unto-death when the committee submitted its interim report and over 13,000 certificates were given.
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Bhujbal, who belongs to Ajit Pawar faction of NCP, also demanded that the process to find out to Kunbi caste records should be stayed. ”When the Shinde Committee visited a particular place, it was stated that 5,000 Kunbi records were found. Then it was said 11,000 records have been found. And now the committee is saying 2–3 crore records have been found. The process of issuing Kubhi caste certificates should be immediately stopped. We will not allow this,” he said.
Jarange-Patil ridiculed the demand made by Bhujbal. ”What does he think of himself ? Is he more important that the courts ? I think his age is telling on him. The law is not implemented as per his directives. Maratha community will certainly get reservation,” he said in Antarwali-Saraati after Bhujbal’s speech.
Regarding Bhujbal’s allegation of torching of properties in Beed by Maratha agitators, Jarange-Patil said,”He knows who burnt the roperties, his own people did it…The Maratha community made you big, it gave you prime position and now you are trying to break the same community.”
Demanding caste census, Bhujbal said,”When Bihar can do it, why can’t Maharashtra. All leaders including Sharad Pawar and Rahul Gandhi are demanding caste census, we are also in favour of caste census. Let there be doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani…We will accept whatever be the outcome of the caste census.”
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Emphasising that OBCs were not opposed to the Maratha reservation, but they should be given separate reservations, Bhujbal said, “We are not opposed to the Maratha reservation. But the Maratha community should be given separate reservations. It should not be included in the OBC category. Give them 12 per cent or 15 per cent reservation, we won’t mind.”
Like the Jalna rally over a week back, Bhujbal again hit out Jarange-Patil for his purported comment that Marathas cannot allow OBCs to boss over them.
”This newborn leader (Jarange-Patil) is saying that Marathas now have to work under those who are not capable people. He is trying to show we aren’t capable or we are not worth working under… I want to remind him that the Bahujan samaj had capable people, and that’s why they fought under Chhatrapati Shivaji for the sake of Swarajya,” said Bhujbal at the OBC Elgar rally in Hingoli. This was the second time in 10 days that Bhujbal has taken on Jarange-Patil, who also has been criticising the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader.
Mentioning the names of several OBC personalities and their achievements over the centuries, Bhujbal said Mahatma Jyotiba Phule discovered the samadhi of Chhatrapati Shivaji. ”Mahatma Phule started Shiv Jayanti, the first powada (ballad) was written by Phule, the second by Amar Shaikh and the third by Annabhau Sathe…these people were not capable? The Constitution Day that we are celebrating today and which (the Constitution) inspired the world was drafted by a Dalit, Babasaheb Ambedkar. Was he not a capable person?”
Explaining how the OBC community plays a vital role in the day-to-day life of every individual, Bhujbal said, ”Our OBC community is the creator of the nation. Our OBC brother runs a salon for all our communities, our tailor stitches clothes, our dhobi washes your clothes, our goldsmith provides you gold, our cobbler stitches your footwear, and the Mali community ensures that you get flowers to felicitate people. And you (Jarange-Patil) are saying we are not deserving people.”
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In warning Jarange-Patil not to ban political leaders from entering villages, Bhujbal said, “The Constitution provides us freedom of movement and expression. It also provides a one-month simple jail term if anyone wrongly restrains any person. Will the government and the police, who have put up boards banning political leaders’ entry into villages, be the government going to uphold the Constitution or not? Article 19 of the Constitution provides us the freedom of movement.No one can stop you from moving anywhere or expressing your views or writing. ”
Pointing out how the government was going soft of Maratha agitators, Bhujbal claimed that one of the colleagues of Jarange Patil, named Bendre, was arrested by police and the FIR says that the gun recovered from him matches with the bullets fired at Jalna’s Antarwali-Sarati village after which police resorted to lathicharge. “That person was not kept under police custody for a day and was sent directely to judicial custody. How can anyone except of justice,” he asked.
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