Cleaning operations going on outside Azad Maidan after the protests.
Credit: BMC
Mumbai: This has been a never-seen-before protest in Mumbai.
Even as Manoj Jarange-Patil continues to undertake fast-unto-death at the historic Azad Maidan demanding Maratha reservation under OBC quota, lakhs of protestors who have come to the financial capital of Mumbai have kept themselves busy.
From music to dance, cricket, kho-kho, wrestling - there was all.
Many found time for Mumbai darshan during Ganeshotsav - as they visited the popular pandals and also tourist spots like Gateway of India in Apollo Bunder on the Eastern seafront to Marine Drive on the Western seafront.
Many of the protestors were seen with foreign tourists asking them to say ‘ek Maratha, lakh Maratha’ - which they cheerfully obliged.
The traffic from Crawford Market to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Churchgate Station via Hutatma Chowk-Flora Fountain and the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation to Metro Cinema to Marine Lines - was in a complete mess as it is chock-a-block because of protestors.
BMC clean-up marshals and the Mumbai police constables and traffic constables had a tough job.
Many of the protestors were seen performing Yoga in the morning at the CSMT, which was a sort of temporary shelter for many of them.
Besides, many had slept in ATM kiosks and some chilled in the cool environment inside the Jehangir Art Gallery for some time.
Many people were seen in the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Bombay is a collection of 19th-century Victorian revival public and 20th-century Mumbai Art Deco private buildings in the Fort precinct, an ensemble which a few years ago was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The CSMT too is a UNESCO World Heritage Site - and one of the most photographed buildings of Mumbai.
Clips from the protest site show men wrestling and playing games like kho-kho and drawing crowds who cheer them.
Besides, some were also seen playing cricket on the roads of South Mumbai. Groups of protestors can be seen dancing on the roads to the beat of traditional dhols and tashas.
“I have never seen such a situation in South Mumbai. I have seen several protests in Mumbai right from the ones undertaken by late Socialist leader George Fernandes to the August 9, 2017 Maratha Kranti Morcha at Azad Maidan. I have never seen such a morcha as now,” said Raj Suri, a veteran tourist guide, who is an expert on South Mumbai.
Many of the agitators protested outside the Bombay Stock Exchange and wanted to see it saying that they hold shares of several companies and have the right to go in.