Mumbai/Pune: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that any reservation extended in a hurry to the Maratha community will not stand up in court, while BJP ally Shiv Sena stirred the quota pot further by asking the State government to extend reservation to Dhangars and Kolis as well.
The State cannot work based on emotions if it really wants to give reservation, the CM said, terming the recent incidents of violence and suicides by Maratha youth as disturbing.
Another youth committed suicide on Tuesday in Beed district over the Marathas’ reservation demands, taking the total number of suicides, where the police have attributed the motive to the Maratha quota stir, to four.
“The government can any time issue an ordinance for the Maratha reservation, but that will not stand up in court. We will have to meet certain legal aspects to give reservation and the government will do everything to achieve that,” Mr. Fadnavis said at a book launch in Mumbai.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray demanded on Monday that the government announce reservation for Marathas without waiting for the State Backward Class Commission’s report on the issue. Once the Maratha community is given reservation, others will come out on the streets and a new problem will crop up, the party mouthpiece Saamana warned in an editorial on Tuesday .
The Congress mocked the CM, who also holds the Home Ministry portfolio, for not being able to step outside Mumbai owing to the Maratha agitation. “If the Home Minister is scared of stepping outside his house, it means he has lost the support of people,” State Congress president Ashok Chavan said.
Spate of suicides
A 30-year-old youth Abhijit Deshmukh from Kaij tehsil in Beed district allegedly hanged himself from a tree outside his home on Tuesday, leaving a note that said: “I am taking my life owing to my medical expenses, mounting debts, and the ongoing Maratha agitation for reservation.”
“It appears Deshmukh, who was unemployed, blamed the lack of reservation for the Maratha community for his situation. He was further burdened by bank loans, and had apparently not been keeping well,” G. Shreedhar, Superintendent of Police, Beed, told The Hindu .
NCP leader Ajit Pawar appealed to protesters not to kill themselves, and demonstrate peacefully instead, even as the industrial area of Chakan outside Pune city limped back to normalcy on Tuesday after Monday’s shutdown called by the Sakal Maratha Samaj that left eight policemen injured.
“The condition of one police officer Ajay Bhapkar is serious. He has not yet regained consciousness,” Vishwas Nangare-Patil, Inspector General of Police, Kolhapur Range, told The Hindu .
Two cases against nearly 3,000 persons had been lodged at Chakan and Khed police stations under the Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to rioting, arson, and the use of criminal force to deter public servant for discharging his duty among others, Mr. Patil said.
( With PTI inputs )
