On Friday, Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal reaffirmed that the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) should continue to receive reservation in addition to Marathas. He also took aim at Maratha activist Manoj Jarange for remarks he made recently.
Speaking at a rally of OBC communities, the NCP leader asked how suddenly a number of records showing Marathas as belonging to the Kunbi caste were being found. OBCs have got reservation constitutionally and after an approval of the Supreme court. He (Jarange) says that we have taken away their (Maratha community) reservation for 70 years. Are we taking away something that belongs to Jarange’s family? Bhujbal said.
We do not oppose Maratha reservation, but there should be no encroachment on the OBC quota, he added. Bhujbal also questioned how suddenly records showing Maratha families as belonging to the Kunbi caste, an OBC community, were being discovered. Initially 5,000 records were found in Marathwada which was part of the Nizam’s Hyderabad state (before 1948). Later the number went up to 13,500.Even when there were elections in Telangana, the number went up, Bhujbal said.
A rally for the preservation of OBC and Nomadic Tribe reservations was held in Ambad, Jalna district, Maharashtra, and was attended by Bhujbal and a number of other notable OBC leaders, including Congressmen Vijay Wadettiwar, Rajesh Rathod, Gopichand Padalkar, MLC for the BJP, Prakash Shendge, and Mahadev Jankar.
The incident happened 25 kilometres from the village of Antarwali Sarati, where Jarange had gone on a hunger strike in August and again in October to protest the Maratha quota.