Maratha quota stir: Shinde govt apologises for Jalna lathicharge, calls for peace

The state government has taken this issue seriously and are working to find an amicable solution, Shinde said.

Rattled by the state-wide protests against the Jalna lathicharge, the Maharashtra government, on Monday, tendered an apology even as it reached out to Manoj Jarange-Patil, who is undertaking a fast-unto-death demanding reservation for the Marathas. 

“We are committed to providing reservation to the Maratha community,” Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde said after a high-level meeting to review the situation and sort out the issue arising out of the protest in Jalna. 

Shinde, who was accompanied by Deputy Chief Ministers - Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar -  also said a committee will submit its report within a month on how to issue Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas from Marathwada region.

Kunbis - the community associated with agriculture -  are grouped under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in Maharashtra.

Jarange Patil said, he would not call off the protest unless a government order (GR) is issued granting reservation in education and jobs to the Marathas.

Shinde’s two emissaries - Arjun Khotkar and Mahadev Jankar - met Jarange-Patil in Antarwali Sarathi village on Dhule-Solapur road in Ambad tehsil of Jalna and tried to convince him to call off the hunger strike. 

State’s Rural Development Minister Girish Mahajan is also expected to meet the agitators on Monday night. 

Amid protests, Fadnavis said: “Lathicharge by police was not right. I am apologising on behalf of the government. The CM has assured action against those responsible for it, and the matter is under probe.” 

The trio of Shinde, Fadnavis and Pawar said that it is a baseless allegation that the orders of lathicharge came from Mantralaya, the state secretariat. “If it can be proved that the orders came from the top, I would leave politics,” said Pawar. 

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Sanjay Saxena visited Jalna as head of the state government-appointed probe team to investigate into the causes that prompted the lathicharge. 

In a related development, Commandant of State Reserve Police Force in Pune rushed to Jalna and took charge as Superintendent in Police in place of Tushar Doshi who has been sent on compulsory leave.

The Shinde-dispensation shifted the blame on the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, which was in power for two-and-a-half years - when the Supreme Court struck it down. 

Thackeray, however, reacted sharply saying that the present government is in power for more than a year and that they should immediately quit office, or be thrown out of power.

MNS President Raj Thackeray alleged that the Marathas are being taken for a ride for their crucial votes during elections and they are not likely to get any quotas, since the matter is still pending before the SC.

The MVA also called for a special session to resolve the issue. UBT's Thackeray and state Congress President Nana Patole made similar demands. 

“They should take a decision in the upcoming special session of the Parliament and give justice to the entire Maratha community,” said Patole.