While Maratha outfits have called for a shutdown on Saturday in protest over the Supreme Court’s stay on the implementation of the quota law, prominent community leaders appear to be bickering among themselves.
On Friday, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP from Kolhapur, Chhatrapati Sambhajiraje, launched a thinly-veiled attack on other Maratha community leaders like Shiv Sangram president Vinayak Mete and Praveen Gaikwad for merely giving sound-bytes on television instead of actually leading the Maratha activists on the streets.
Considered an influential Maratha community leader, Mr. Gaikwad had attempted to secure a nomination for the Pune Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 general election with the covert backing of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar – an effort which eventually came a cropper.
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Mr. Sambhajiraje, who was leading an agitation in Tuljapur in Osmanabad district in Marathwada region, said, “Certain leaders only express their indignation over the apex court’s stay [on the Maratha quota] on television… if they have any courage, they must come forward and agitate along with the people on the streets.”
The MP said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government must put its best foot forward in fighting to vacate the Supreme Court’s stay order on the implementation of the Maratha quota law in the State. “It will not take much time for these agitations presently comprising only thousands to transform into protests with lakhs of seething and disgruntled Maratha community people,” warned Mr. Sambhajiraje.
Meanwhile, the Pune-based Sambhaji Brigade hit out at Mr. Gaikwad as well, while chastising Maratha leaders from the BJP as well as the ruling MVA for using the agitation as a means to gain political mileage.
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“Mr. Gaikwad, who is a broker of Sharad Pawar’s NCP, had earlier demanded that the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exams be held as scheduled on October 11 without any concern for the safety or security of Maratha community students in the time of the pandemic. However, the government has fortunately announced the postponement of the exams, nullifying Mr. Gaikwad’s demands,” said Manoj Akhare of the Sambhaji Brigade.
Brigade leader Santosh Shinde said in reality, certain Maratha leaders from both the ruling party as well as the opposition BJP were using the quota movement for their selfish political ends.
“These leaders are not really interested in fighting for the rights of the communities… they have been propped up by the ruling and opposing political factions to drive a wedge in this agitation. The furore over the MPSC issue was a deliberate diversionary tactic,” said Mr. Shinde.