Jarange firm on Kunbi demand, threatens march
Activist Manoj Jarange on Sunday stood firm on his demand for Kunbi caste certificates for all Marathas as his indefinite hunger strike entered the second day, warning that he would march to Mumbai if the Maharashtra government failed to act.
Jarange on Saturday launched his 11th indefinite fast over Maratha reservation-related demands at his native Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district, where thousands of community members have gathered to support his agitation.
He has been demanding that eligible Marathas be recognised as Kunbis, an agrarian community that enjoys reservation benefits in education and government jobs under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.
"The Maharashtra government should declare all Marathas as Kunbi," the activist told reporters on the second day of his agitation.
Jarange said that if the government failed to accept the demands, he would march to Mumbai and intensify the agitation.
A meeting of the Maratha community's core committee, led by him, would be held in Antarwali Sarati on September 12 to decide on staging a hunger strike in Mumbai.
"If the government accepts our demands by September 12, there will be no need to hold the proposed fast in Mumbai," the activist said.
Jarange is demanding immediate issuance of Kunbi certificates to eligible members of the Maratha community based on 58 lakh historical records, asserting that the community will not grant any further time.
He has also demanded that caste certificate verification be suspended, arguing that there is no need for it in cases covered by the historical records.
The activist has urged the state government to issue reservation based on the Satara Gazette, withdraw all police cases registered against quota protesters across Maharashtra, and provide government jobs and financial compensation to the families of those who died during the previous agitations.
Meanwhile, Maratha Kranti Morcha state coordinator Dr Sanjay Lakhe Patil claimed Maharashtra minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil had suggested that caste verification committees were unnecessary as such bodies did not exist elsewhere in the country.
This could create confusion and resentment among Maratha youth and members of other communities, Lakhe Patil told PTI.
Calling the reported suggestion "shocking, unconstitutional and illegal", he said te concept of caste scrutiny committees was not confined to Maharashtra, referring to a Supreme Court judgment in which directions were issued for setting up independent scrutiny committees to verify caste and tribal certificates.
He said the verification mechanism was intended to prevent the misuse of reservation by people producing false caste certificates and to ensure that quota benefits reached genuine persons.
Lakhe Patil warned that any attempt to abolish caste verification committees could face legal challenges, saying the issue concerned the reservation rights of people belonging to various castes and tribes and was not limited to the Maratha community.
On August 25, the state government gave a one-year extension to the committee to scrutinise Kunbi records of the Maratha community.
The term of the committee, headed by retired Bombay High Court Judge Sandeep Shinde -- which ended on June 30, 2026 -- has been extended by a year till June 30, 2027, according to a government resolution (GR) dated August 25.
The multi-member panel was formed in September 2023 to decide the methodology for issuing Kunbi caste certificates to Maratha community members, enabling them to seek reservation in government jobs and education under the OBC category.
The GR said the work to trace the Maratha-Kunbi genealogy is still not complete in some districts and accordingly the panel needed to be given more time to finish its task.
