20 lakh turn up at Maratha silent rally in Pune

Pune,Sept26:Over 20 lakh members of the Maratha community held a Muk Morcha (silent agitation) in Pune on Sunday, making it the highest turnout for the movement since it commenced with a raly at Aurangabad on August 10.

The march began at 10:30 a.m., with the garlanding of the statue of King Sambhaji, in the Deccan area. People from Nashik, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Satara and Kolahpur gathered at the Alka Talkies roundabout, the start-point. Soon, streets and by-lanes were swamped with protesters wearing black armbands and carrying saffron flags. More than 20 of the city’s roads were blocked.

Apart from demanding justice for the gang-rape and of a minor girl in Kopardi, the agitators highlighted the lack of jobs for Maratha youth, and the plight of farmers. “While we seek justice for the Kopardi crime, there are several issues where our community has been sidelined. In many instances, we find that students with no merit take advantage of reservations, while we lag behind despite working hard at our studies,” said Shobha Mhaske, a student, before the start of the rally.

The event also saw the participation of prominent Marathas, including steeplechase runner Lalita Babar, who said she was proud to be part of the march. “I strongly identify with the concerns of women’s safety,” she said, referring to the Kopardi tragedy.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Udayanraje Bhosale said, “The demands of our community are neither unrealistic nor irrelevant. Successive governments have failed to check farmer suicides. Compensations and subsidies have benefited only richer farmers. It is the duty of all elected representatives of the Maratha community to participate in these marches.”

Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar displayed the Muk Morcha sign when asked for his comments.

More than 5,000 police personnel were deployed to maintain order. Besides, the organisers has set up a control room with 10 computers near Mitra Mandal chowk.

Members of the Swachata Samiti cleaned stretches behind the protesters as the morcha moved ahead.

The rally concluded within three hours, ending with women protesters presenting the demands to the Collector.

Two rallies in Vidarbha

Meanwhile, two more rallies were organised in the Yavatmal and Washim districts of the Vidarbha region. In Yavatmal. infamous for farmers’ suicides, over one lakh people participated in the protest. Around 80,000 took part in the march in Washim.

Farmers formed a big chunk of the participants at both the rallies.

Congress leader and former Maharashtra Congress president Manikrao Thakarey and the BJP Minister from Yavatmal, Madan Yerawar, participated in the Yavatmal protest and Washim MP and Shiv Sena leader Bhawana Gawali was present at the Washim rally.

Both the rallies were led by young girls, who submitted their memorandum of demands to the district officials.