Maha Minister Chhagan Bhujbal warns of protest if Maratha community is included in OBC category

Mumbai, Sep 1 (IANS) Maharashtra Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal said on Monday that reservation should not be given to the Maratha community from the Other Backward Class (OBC) quota and warned that if it will be done then OBCs will come in millions to Mumbai to protest against it.

"There are 374 castes in OBC. Therefore, our only demand is that the Maratha community should not be included in the OBC category. I met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today. Both the Deputy Chief Ministers (Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar) were present there and showed him the Supreme Court's decision," Minister Bhujbal added.

The Minister was speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting he had convened with various organisations to discuss the situation arisen after pro-Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil has launched an indefinite fast at Mumbai's Azad Maidan, demanding reservation to the Maratha community from OBC quota.

Minister Bhujbal at the outset said that he is speaking as an OBC leader, who has been elected as legislator and also as a sitting Cabinet Minister representing the OBC community.

"If they (Jarange-Patil) can protest as Maratha, I also can launch an agitation as an OBC to protect our rights," he declared.

"The Bombay High Court has earlier said that it is nonsense to say that Marathas and Kunbis are one. It has observed that the Maratha community is not backward. Therefore, the Maratha community should not be included in the OBC category and should not be given reservation from the OBC quota. Fifty per cent reservation is reserved for the socially backward classes. But the Maratha community does not become socially backward. OBCs do not want to give share to anyone in our quota. Whether it is Sharad Pawar or Devendra Fadnavis, no one can add a new caste to the OBC, SC and ST. If injustice is done to us (OBCs), millions will be affected and they will come to Mumbai," Minister Bhujbal said.

The Minister also added, "I am not interested in blaming any Chief Minister or government. I am saying what the rules and law say. Therefore, if the government is being stubborn, then it should look into the rules and legal provisions. But we have decided now to go on a hunger strike and take out processions from district to district, from every taluka. If injustice is done to us (OBCs), we too will not stop until we come to Mumbai."

Commenting on a group of Maratha activists' move to gherao NCP-SP Working President and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule and the harassment of women journalists, Minister Bhujbal said that protests should be done peacefully and in a democratic way.

"I heard yesterday that women journalists were harassed. MP Supriya Sule was also stopped. She is an MP. She had come to tell Jarange-Patil to take care of his health. But everyone saw how she was treated. It is wrong for women MPs to be treated like this and also to women reporters," he added.

--IANS

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