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Journalism of Courage
Sometime in the 1950s, at an inter-college competition, a young man had gone up on stage to deliver a power-packed performance in a one-act play. The winner that day was Chhagan Bhujbal, a student of Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute College in Matunga, Mumbai, and the runner-up was Amjad Khan (of Sholay fame).
Those who know Bhujbal, the 76-year-old NCP leader, say acting is one skill that has stayed with him. All he needed was a stage. And in his four-decade-old political career, he has had several — first with the Shiv Sena, followed by the Congress, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and now, as part of the NCP’s breakaway faction led by Ajit Pawar.
On Sunday, Bhujbal donned another challenging role, with a leaked phone call seeing him openly describe the demand for Maratha reservation as a challenge to the OBC community. And vowing to take up the challenge.
“People are asking me to raise my voice. In every taluka of the state, these bulldozers are roaming about. The OBCs are unlikely to survive this. It is a do or die situation for us. We need to raise our voice. We are tired of being pushed around,” senior NCP leader and state Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chaggan Bhujbal can be purportedly heard saying in the leaked telephone conversation with one of his supporters.
While the leak might queer the pitch of the ruling coalition at a time that it is trying to keep both the Marathas and OBCs happy, Bhujbal did not seem defensive over the leaked conversation Monday. He told reporters that OBC activists were “being targeted” and that he was trying to rally the community to ensure that their rights were not “trampled”.
“There is an attack happening on OBC reservation. Houses of MLAs are being torched; hotels are being targeted for hosting OBC activists. We need to speak about this. I have a right to rally OBC communities in the same way others are rallying their supporters. We too need to express our anger,” said Bhujbal.
By evening, he had taken on the state government over its handling of the issue, questioning its mollycoddling of Maratha activists and stating that OBCs could not expect justice from this government and ministers, who were kowtowing before Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil.
“OBC reservations are under danger. Lot of people, including those in the top echelons of the Mantralaya to people on the ground, are conspiring to end reservations… So much terror has been created that no one is willing to speak up,” he said, going on to question the rationale behind the government treating the Maratha quota protesters who had even attacked cops with kid gloves.
“I want to ask those who are making these decisions: 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 criticised the state government’s decision to send a delegation of ministers and former judges to talk to Jarange-Patil. “Our ministers and even judges are going to meet him, pleading before him. What justice can OBCs expect from people who did ‘Sir SIr’ before him,” Bhujbal said.
The Yeola MLA has emerged as a totem for all those who have questioned the inclusion of Marathas under the OBC category for granting reservation benefits. “No one is against the reservation for Marathas. But it should be given without compromising OBC reservations. The Act giving reservation to Marathas was not upheld in the Supreme Court. Should we walk that path again? In that case, how should reservations be given to Marathas?” Bhujbal had said in September.
Many attribute Bhujbal’s stridence to the predicament he faces as a politician, ever since he went along with Ajit Pawar in the NCP split, with his mentor Sharad Pawar not taking kindly to the decision.
Bhujbal’s association with Sharad Pawar goes back to the time when he left the Shiv Sena to join the Congress. He became a close aide, and followed Sharad Pawar into the NCP. With the NCP being dominated by Maratha leaders, Pawar saw in Bhujbal a promising OBC leader whose oratory and theatrics appealed to the masses, and helped the then fledgling party gain traction.
Understandably, his decision to side with Ajit Pawar in the NCP split had miffed Sharad Pawar. One of the first rallies Sharad Pawar addressed after the rebellion was in Bhujbal’s fiefdom Yeola. Since then, both leaders have repeatedly attacked each other. Bhujbal has publicly claimed he was being selectively targeted by Sharad Pawar, and that other rebel NCP leaders have got a far softer treatment from the patriarch.
With the spotlight on the Maratha community, Bhujbal is hoping to present himself as the anchor of an anticipated counter mobilisation within the OBCs.
