Mumbai: The agonising tension between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil dates back to September 1, 2023, when the police resorted to a lathi charge on protestors gathered at Antarwali Sarati (Jalna). The flashpoint came during the Lok Sabha and the state assembly elections last year.
Jarange was acerbic and bitter against the perceived casteist bias harboured by the CM. With Eknath Shinde at the helm between June 2022 and December 5, 2024, the Maratha quota leader was more pliable. This was witnessed when the Shinde-led government succeeded in convincing the protestors to return from Navi Mumbai in January last year.
About The Maratha Reservation Protest
The past four days were unprecedented. The Maratha agitation had reached the heart of Mumbai, and Fadnavis was at the receiving end for alleged mismanagement by allowing the protestors at Azad Maidan. Everything seemed out of control, until Sunday, that is, when Fadnavis took charge. When the protestors reached Mumbai, Maratha sub-committee head Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil was in Shirdi.
Deputy CM Eknath Shinde was mostly in Thane, speaking only on a couple of occasions, raising suspicions about his posturing. Deputy CM Ajit Pawar was in Pune, telling the media that he would go to Mumbai if required. It was Union Home Minister Amit Shah who, after visiting Lalbaugcha Raja, held a closed-door meeting with both Fadnavis and Shinde.
The next day, on Monday, a petition came before the Bombay High Court, and the government put up its views opposing the agitation. Fadnavis chaired a few meetings of the ministers’ committee where neither Shinde nor Pawar was present. No cabinet meeting was held to discuss the assurances to be given to Jarange Patil and the government resolutions (GRs) that were to be issued. The drafting of the GRs was also a careful process undertaken on Monday.
That their effectiveness only time will reveal is another matter, though. On Monday, when the CM was asked during his visit to Pune as to why no efforts were made to approach the activist, he said no one approached them for talks. On Tuesday, the state government swiftly deputed a group of ministers led by Vikhe Patil to meet Jarange Patil. Although the High Court was critical of the activist and the behaviour of the agitators, the state changed its stand. This could have been the result of a political fallout over ignoring Jarange Patil, who has a huge mass base, probably bigger than any political leader, a bureaucrat quipped.
