Mumbai
Much drama unfolded in the Maharashtra State Secretariat Mantralaya on Friday after Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal and some other tribal MLAs jumped from the third floor of the building on the safety net just a floor below protesting against the demand to include the Dhangar community in the Scheduled Tribe list. Zirwal was later admitted to JJ Hospital due to an injury to his neck due to the jump.
The Dhangar or shepherd community in Maharashtra is demanding inclusion in the ST category for the purpose of reservation. The Dhangars currently enjoy OBC status with a presence largely in western Maharashtra and an influence in around 30 Assembly seats. While the Dhangars claim they are identical to the Dhangad tribe, which has ST status and a spelling mistake cost them the tribal status, the Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court have rejected their assertions.
Besides Zirwal, his fellow Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator Kiran Lahamate, BJP tribal MP Hemant Savara, Rajesh Patil of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) and Hiraman Khoskar of the Congress also jumped from the third floor onto the safety net installed on the second floor, a precaution taken in response to previous suicide attempts at the site. The incident occurred around 12.40 pm.
The police personnel removed the leaders from the net but they then staged a sit-in claiming that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was not meeting them to discuss the quota issue. “I am an adivasi first and then an MLA and a Deputy Speaker. CM Shinde should meet the protesters,” Zirwal told reporters when asked what led him to resort to such a protest.
One of the seniormost tribal leaders, Zirwal is a NCP MLA and had on September 30 too staged a protest outside the Mantralaya against the State government over the issue. Zirwal said that the government must not take any unconstitutional decision regarding the inclusion of Dhangars in the ST list and the TISS report on Dhangar reservation should be made public.
He also raised the issue of students protesting since a fortnight against the halt to recruitment under the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) in Maharashtra. He demanded that the State government should offer protection to the students.
Tribal communities have initiated protests ever since Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde met a delegation of Dhangar community and assured them of justice to them without hurting others. And also, after another Minister Shambhuraj Desai said that the government would think of issuing a government resolution giving ST status to Dhangars.
Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat said, “Zirwal is in the government and a responsible person. The protesters should have spoken to other leaders who are present there. The Chief Minister meets everyone after the cabinet meeting. Instead of doing such agitations, they should have spoken to the CM first. This kind of protest by Zirwal is unacceptable.”
