Jalna protest: Maratha reservation stir turns violent; Eknath Shinde govt flayed. Top points

The political tension in Maharashtra escalated over the weekend following violence in Jalna on Friday, which left around 40 police personnel and some civilians injured. While chief minister Eknath Shinde appealed for peace in the wake of the incident, which erupted during protests for Maratha reservations in Jalna's Antarwali Sarathi village, Opposition parties intensified their criticism against the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state and demanded home minister Devendra Fadnavis's resignation over the violence.

What happened in Jalna?

A sit-in hunger strike, led by activist Manoj Jarange, over the demand for the Maratha reservation began on Tuesday. The reservation in jobs and education provided by the state government to the Maratha community was quashed by the Supreme Court in May 2021, citing the 50 per cent ceiling on total reservations among other grounds.

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The trouble began on Friday when the police attempted to shift Jarange to a hospital on doctors' advice, officials said. Some persons targeted state transport buses and private vehicles, police said. Subsequently, the police used baton-charge and fired tear gas shells to disperse a mob at Antarwali Sarathi village on the Dhule-Solapur road in Ambad tehsil, some 75 km from Aurangabad.

As many as 40 police personnel, including Jalna superintendent of police (SP) Tushar Doshi, were injured in the incident. The police said that more than 360 people had been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code while 16 of them were identified for their alleged involvement in the violence.

To ensure law and order, additional police forces have been sent to Jalna.

Protest against police action

Meanwhile, the police action on Jalna agitators sparked protests in many regions of the state, including Thane, Beed, and Nashik, on Saturday. 'Bandhs' were organized by pro-Maratha outfits in these districts on Saturday, and some incidents of violence were also reported. In Beed, incidents of stone pelting were reported from Majalgaon.

Opposition slams Shinde government

The incident has prompted sharp criticism from Opposition leaders. INDIA allies – Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction, the Congress party, and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party condemned the violence and demanded Fadnavis to answer on whose call the police resorted to baton-charge.

Fadnavis claimed earlier that the police action was prompted due to stone pelting.

Sharad Pawar called for CM's intervention, while the former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday demanded the Centre provide reservations to Marathas and OBCs in the special session of Parliament to be convened later this month. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said Saturday the lathi-charge action was done to divert attention from the INDIA bloc meeting.

State government reaction

Shinde said the lathi-charge incident on the protesters was “unfortunate” and said the state government was committed to providing reservations to the Maratha community.

“In November 2014, when the coalition government was in power under the leadership of then CM Devendra Fadnavis, the government announced the Maratha reservation. The High Court also upheld the Maratha Reservation decision taken by the government. But the Supreme Court took a different decision. Everyone knows that this is due to someone's negligence... The issue of the Maratha Reservation is currently in court. The state government is fully prepared to fight this case in court... There are some difficulties, and the state government is trying to resolve them,” the Maharashtra CM said.

'Won't call off strike'

Meanwhile, after the Friday incident, the protest spearhead Jarange said the agitation won't be called off. “These bullets were fired, and we were lathi-charged inhumanly. Women were also beaten up. Are we Pakistanis or do we have relatives in that country? Why did they fire? We will not stop until we get a reservation, let (CM) Shinde fire as many bullets as he wants,” he said.