Maratha Quota Stir: Mumbaikars Will Forever Be Grateful To HC For Directing Police To Clear Streets Amid Protest Chaos

Mumbai: Mumbaikars will be forever grateful to the division bench of Bombay high court comprising Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Gautam Ankhad for coming to their rescue by asking the police to clear the streets and railway stations off Maratha protestors who have been holding the metropolis to ransom for the past four days and that too during the Ganesh festival.

HC Orders Police to Restrict Protest to Azad Maidan

The HC has rightly directed the police to stop further entry of protestors into Mumbai and asked the ones who are already creating a mayhem in the city to strictly restrict their protest to Azad Maidan. They have been given time till noon of Tuesday to get their act together and stop harassing Mumbaikars.

However, one wishes that the honourable judges had passed an unambiguous order to the police to ask Manoj Jarange Patil (43) and thousands of his supporters to vacate Azad Maidan. They were given permission to stage a peaceful protest only last Friday, but they continued for another three days.

They violated every condition of the permission granted by Azad Maidan police. It is a different matter that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis committed a Himalayan blunder by giving permission for the protest in the first place.

Massive Breach of Permissions by Protestors

Jarange Patil was told that he could bring in only 5,000 people. Instead over 40,000 drove their way into the city in cars, SUVs, trucks and tempos, totally disrupting vehicular traffic all over the city and suburbs. He even threatened to bring in five crore people in a desperate effort to force the state government to pass an illegal order to declare all Marathas as Kunbis and include them in the OBC category.

They blocked arterial streets with impunity. The police ought to have handled the situation with tact and ensured smooth flow of traffic. But they did no such thing.

Now Jarange Patil, who is on an indefinite fast, has asked his followers to park their trucks in Azad Maidan! This will only create more chaos. The man is clearly not in a mood to follow the rules.

Expectation from the High Court

When the matter comes up before the HC on Tuesday, one hopes that the division bench would take a tough stand and ensure that the city is liberated from the vice-like grip of Jarange Patil and his supporters.

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Disruption During Ganeshotsav

Powerful political forces are backing him and what we are witnessing is a massive event management programme involving the use of crores of rupees. The fact that the agitation is being staged during the Ganesh festival shows that the intention is to create chaos in Mumbai.