Key Points

After the five-day protest by pro-Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil paralysed the city, Deora wrote to Fadnavis seeking a ban on protests in, or their relocation away from, the city’s high-security and key operational zones, a move that angered the Uddhav Sena camp, drawing sharp criticism.

In a hard-hitting editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamana, the Uddhav Sena said, “The first right over Mumbai belongs to the Marathi people. Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s party answers to Amit Shah. Therefore, the Shinde camp MP does not acknowledge the Marathi people’s claim over Mumbai. The city did not stop even after the terrible bomb blasts; that is Mumbai’s character. It will not stop because of agitation either, but industrialists aligned with Modi and Shah are trying to swallow Mumbai, which is a serious concern. Mumbai may seem to belong to the affluent, but it is, above all, the capital of Maharashtra.”

The Uddhav Sena has demanded that Shinde immediately expel Deora, accusing him of showing contempt for Marathi identity and opposing both the Maratha community’s movement and the gathering of Marathi people in Mumbai.

“The struggle for a united Maharashtra first caught fire in South Mumbai. From there began the marches of the Marathi people. Most of the 106 martyrs fell in police firing in this very part of the city, where their memorial now stands. It was also from South Mumbai that Mahatma Gandhi gave the call of ‘Quit India’ to the British. The sweat and blood of Marathi workers and mill labourers built the wealth that raised palaces for the rich in this area. Yet Shinde Sena MP Deora now says Marathi people should not be allowed to protest in South Mumbai. He further argues that the country’s economic capital must not be halted by any agitation,” the editorial stated.

Uddhav Sena says that young men and women from villages across Maharashtra came to Mumbai to join Jarange-Patil’s protest for Maratha reservation. For four to five days, they walked the city streets and gathered along the seafront, eating the chutney and bread they had carried from home while sitting by the roadside. The rich from South Mumbai have since raised objections, and their representative, Deora, has written to the Chief Minister registering his protest against the agitation.

“Deora struck the note that no further agitation should be allowed around the Mantralaya in South Mumbai. As an MP from the Shinde group backed by Amit Shah, he has opposed the Marathi people’s protest in South Mumbai in this manner,” claimed the Thackeray camp.

The Uddhav camp rejected Deora’s claim that such protests are barred in every major capital, calling the statement completely objectionable.

“Americans took to the streets against President Trump’s rule, with demonstrations held in more than 1,600 locations. Chicago, a major commercial centre, became the main hub of the protest. People also marched in Atlanta, St. Louis, California, Maryland, New York, and Washington. President Trump’s supporters even resorted to violence inside the Capitol Hill building, long seen as a symbol of American democracy. Across Europe as well, protests are a common feature in national capitals. The right to protest in a capital city is a basic entitlement granted to citizens in a democracy,” the editorial said.

“Saying that Marathi people should not protest in Mumbai, particularly in South Mumbai where the wealthy reside, is an injustice to all Marathi brothers,” it said.

- IANS