Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 29 : As Maratha quota agitation leader Manoj Jarange Patil on Friday continued his hunger strike demanding reservation for the community, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde defended his government's efforts while accusing the opposition of politicising the agitation.
"When I was the Chief Minister, 10 per cent reservation was given to the Maratha community, the benefit of which is being received even today... CM Devendra Fadnavis also extended reservations to the Maratha community, but the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was unable to sustain it. I request the Maratha community that we will definitely do whatever is possible..." Shinde said.
"These people (Uddhav Thackeray) are doing politics only for votes. If they had the courage, they would have done something when they were the Chief Minister. What have they done for the Maratha community? They have absolutely no moral right to speak on the Maratha community," he added.
Echoing the appeal for restraint, Maharashtra Cabinet Minister and senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil cautioned against bringing the agitation to Mumbai.
"We have always been appealing to Manoj Jarange Patil that he should not come to Mumbai and raise these questions here because questions will not be resolved by chaos, they will only be resolved through discussion, as the Chief Minister also said yesterday," he said.
Patil noted that significant progress had been made in granting benefits to eligible Marathas. "Already 58 lakh Marathas have received OBC certificates. The Shinde committee has been working for the last two years, even examining gazettes in Hyderabad and Satara, to ensure eligible people are granted certificates," he explained.
At the same time, Patil warned that prolonged protests in Mumbai could inconvenience ordinary citizens. "If you disturb Mumbai in this way through agitation, then naturally people will comment against the protest itself. What fault is it of the people of Mumbai? They are ordinary working-class people who have to go to their duties," he said, reminding that the Bombay High Court had permitted only a one-day protest with certain conditions.
On the other hand, after supporters of activist Manoj Jarange Patil gathered at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) on Thursday as part of their ongoing agitation demanding Maratha reservation, railway officials said that relevant authorities had been alerted to manage the situation. The train services are witnessing slight delays.