As January 26 marks one year since Sagesoare's notification, prominent Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil has raised serious concerns about the delay in its implementation and the government's handling of issues affecting impoverished Maratha children. Patil highlighted the struggles of economically disadvantaged Marathas, emphasizing their inability to access professional education without reservations and reiterating their demand for inclusion in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
“We are breaking the law to fulfill our children's dreams,” Patil stated in an interview with Lokmat Video Editor Ashish Jadhav. “Poor Marathas cannot afford to become doctors or engineers; we need reservation. Marathas should obtain Kunbi certificates.” He insisted that their rightful reservation should come from the existing OBC quota, supporting his claim with historical records from Hyderabad, Satara, and Bombay.
Patil criticized the government's past efforts to provide Maratha reservation under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) category, arguing that it exceeded the constitutional limit of 50% and was thus unsustainable. “We demand inclusion within OBC, where we rightly belong. The SEBC reservation has not met our needs,” he stated, noting that students admitted under SEBC face challenges, including scholarship denials and demands for full fee payments.
He condemned the government for failing to deliver on promises of free education for girls, highlighting an incident in a Wagholi, Pune college where a girl's admission was jeopardized due to the lack of free education benefits. Patil also criticized the stalled search for Kunbi records necessary for Maratha inclusion in the OBC category, questioning, “Why is the government harassing Marathas instead of protecting our rights?”