Wadettiwar slams govt over Jarange's Mumbai stir, OBC neglect and drought

Senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar launched a wide-ranging attack on the Maharashtra government, speaking to reporters in Nagpur after Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil announced a fresh agitation in Mumbai. With the protest expected to fall during Ganeshotsav, questions had already been raised about crowd control and law and order in the city.

Wadettiwar said large crowds were only natural given the festival season, and that what mattered was how the state handled the agitation. He accused the government of deliberately engineering a dispute between OBCs and Hindus, calling it a manufactured crisis and, in his words, a sin committed by those in power. He said ministers bent so low before Jarange that even a pet animal would feel ashamed, joking that it was a wonder their necks had not snapped from the bowing, and argued that this was precisely why Jarange had begun to see himself as a ruler, a "badshah". A government bows only when someone forces it to, he said, adding that what happens between the state and Jarange from here is for the two of them to settle.

On OBC welfare, Wadettiwar alleged the government pays no real attention to the community's problems. He cited job reservations, saying eighty percent of applicants end up getting only fifteen percent of the posts once every category is brought under reservation, a distortion he said runs across employment generally. He also pointed to local self-government bodies, claiming that in some districts as much as ninety percent of seats reserved for smaller OBC groups have slipped away, a pattern he said had already played out earlier in zilla parishads, with established candidates allegedly winning on OBC certificates, including fake ones, while genuine community members are left without a chance. He further accused government functionaries of using crude, abusive language against OBC leaders, and said the state showed neither the courage to act against Jarange nor any shame at the insults hurled its way.

He challenged the government to act against Jarange if it truly had the strength to do so, making clear he had no objection to the agitation itself but wanted a firmer stand on law and order and on OBC concerns. Otherwise, he said sarcastically, ministers would keep being sent to appease Jarange until he agreed to the government's terms, with all of Maharashtra watching. In a post on social media, Wadettiwar reiterated that Congress would not come in the way of the Mumbai protest, saying, "we will not get involved in that, the Mahayuti government will look after law and order," while indicating he would press the OBC issue more forcefully in the days ahead.

Separately, Wadettiwar demanded that the state announce an emergency package for farmers, describing drought-like conditions as the worst the state has seen, with several dams running dry and drinking water supplies under threat. He said he had written to the Governor and wanted faster crop insurance payouts, compensation for losses, a waiver on kharif season loans, interest relief, a weather-based action plan, and support for livestock and fodder. Without urgent help, he warned, farmers would not survive, and appealed to the government to focus on farm distress, unemployment and the paper-leak controversy rather than what he called indulging industrialists. He also referred to a ruling party minister's remark urging people to buy only from Hindu-owned businesses, and said ministers who recite the Hanuman Chalisa rarely speak of the Constitution.