Maratha protests to soon make a comeback in state

Months after their silent morchas seeking quotas for Marathas rocked Maharashtra, community organisations are set to revive the demand by launching a fresh set of protests.

Agitators will begin their stir with a march by half-clad men in Pune on May 10, This will eventually culminate in a morcha in Mumbai on May 30, which will be converted into an indefinite fast in case the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government does not take any decision on these demands.

However, fatigue seems to have set in for some leaders who galvanised the masses for the previous 'Maratha Kranti Morchas.' These leaders point to how the demands for reservations in jobs and education for the dominant community and the death sentence for the accused in the brutal gang rape and murder of a Maratha girl at Kopardi in Ahmednagar are sub-judice.

Prof Sambhaji Patil of the 'Sakal Maratha Samaj,' which is an umbrella group of organisations involved in the protests, said they would hold a 'Maratha Round Table Conference' in Kolhapur on Wednesday to decide on the course of action.

"We have crossed the limits of our tolerance," threatened Patil, who had organised a motorcycle rally with 104 youth covering 15 districts in October 2015 and had went on a week-long fast in 2016 to press his demands.

However, Pravin Gaikwad, leader of the Peasants and Workers Party and former chief of the hardline Sambhaji Brigade, noted that such protests mattered little as the quota and Kopardi cases were sub-judice.

"The morchas were silent but the numbers in attendance said a lot. The demands could not be taken to a logical end," said Gaikwad, who was involved in these protests.