Pune: In a precursor to the ‘mega silent’ agitation to be staged in Mumbai by the Maratha community on August 9, the Maratha Kranti Morcha held a massive bike rally in Aurangabad district on Tuesday.
Thousands of community members, including a sizeable number of women, coursed through the bylanes and streets of Aurangabad town on their motorbikes and two-wheelers, chanting ‘chalo Mumbai’ while exhorting the Maratha community to stand up for its rights.
The Aurangabad bike demonstration is part of three major ‘warm-up’ events in the build-up towards the August 9 muk morcha (silent rally) which is expected to bring bustling Mumbai to a standstill, according to Maratha Kranti Morcha organisers.
A similar bike agitation was held in Ahmednagar earlier this week, while another is to be held in Pune on August 6 as a prelude to the Mumbai muk morcha — touted by the Morcha organisers as “the silent rally to end all silent rallies”.
“After 57 muk morchas since August 9 last year, the forthcoming Mumbai rally will be the last ‘silent’ rally. Henceforth, the [Maratha] community will not be restrained by holding peaceful demonstrations,” warned Santosh Shinde of the pro-Maratha outfit, Sambhaji Brigade, speaking to The Hindu .
The Maratha ‘silent’ rallies, which commenced in Aurangabad district on August 9 last year in the aftermath of the shocking Kopardi rape-murder, shook Maharashtra in their sweep and magnitude.
While immediate redressal of the heinous rape-murder of a minor girl from the Maratha community in Kopardi was the standard demand, the agitations soon foregrounded a number of vital grievances on part of community members, from the paucity of jobs for Maratha girls and boys to the plight of farmers.
After their tremendous initial spurt, the ‘silent rallies’ have lost their impetus with the State government neglecting important demands of the Maratha community, said Shantaram Punjir of the Maratha Kranti Morcha.
“Even after more than a year, no justice has been served in the Kopardi case, let alone any implementation of the the larger demands raised by the Maratha community. So, in a bid to enthuse the community to keep up the fight, we have staged a number of bike rallies as a curtain-raiser to the mega Mumbai event,” explained Mr. Punjir , speaking to The Hindu.
He said the purpose of the forthcoming Mumbai ‘silent rally’ was to reclaim the initiative by pricking up the ears of the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government to the problems facing the Maratha community.
