Manoj Jarange, Maratha reservation activist On Friday, he accused Maharashtra minister and OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal of instigating communal tensions. He urged Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to rein him in, PTI reported.
He was speaking to reporters at Mahakala village in Jalna district in the wake of sloganeering and stone pelting in his native village of Matori in neighbouring Beed district.
According to the report, the incident took place on Thursday evening when some people from nearby villages were passing through Matori to participate in a rally by OBC quota agitators Laxman Hake and Navnath Waghmare.
Jarange claimed that Bhujbal had orchestrated the attack to wrongly blame Maratha youth, PTI reported.
“Bhujbal himself asked his men to pelt stones at the vehicles of OBC activists and then blamed the Maratha youth. The chief minister and home minister should rein him in for fomenting communal discord,” he said.
According to the enws agency report, Jarange also claimed that the police were harassing the Maratha youth and also accused them of being involved in the stone-pelting incident.
“Police are harassing Maratha youth and blaming them for stone pelting. This injustice must end,” he said, PTI reported.
He warned the government that the Maratha community would not remain silent if such “targeted harassment” continued.
Jarange said that Bhujbal had also tried to disturb the peace in his village Antarwali Sarati on earlier occasions but his efforts were thwarted.
“Bhujbal incited people and created communal division, but we foiled his plan,” he said.
According to the agency report, the fast by OBC activists Hake and Waghmare was a government-sponsored protest, Jarange said, adding that Bhujbal himself accepted that both were its activists.
Jarange, who has brought the Maratha quota issue to centre stage in the state, has been demanding implementation of the draft notification recognising Kunbis as “sage soyare” (blood relatives) of members of the Maratha community.
Kunbi, an agrarian group, falls under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, and Jarange has been demanding that Kunbi certificates be issued to all Marathas, thereby making them eligible for quota benefits.
However, OBC activists Hake and Waghmare have opposed Jarange’s demand to issue Kunbi certificates to the Maratha community, stating that the state government should not take any decision affecting OBCs.
Hake and Wahgmare had been on fast to protect the OBC quota in Wadigodri village in Jalna district. They ended their 10-day fast on June 22.
(with input from PTI)
