Maratha leaders need to wake up, says Parth Pawar

Young and fiery Parth Pawar, the grandnephew of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, stunned Maharashtra’s political circles when he said Maratha leaders need to wake up and ensure that the community gets justice by way of reservation.

The 30-year-old Parth is the son of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and nephew of NCP’s Baramati MP Supriya Sule.

Parth raised the issue of a Maratha youth who died by suicide demanding reservation for the Maratha community in jobs and educational institutions.It needs to be mentioned here that 79-year-old Pawar Sr is referred to as the Maratha strongman.

“Devastated to hear of the tragic death of Vivek who died by suicide for the cause of Maratha reservations. Before a chain reaction of such unfortunate incidents starts,” he said.Parth said that Maratha leaders have to wake up and fight for this cause and requested the Maha Vikas Agnadi government to step in to solve the crisis.

Parth said "The flame that Vivek has ignited in our minds can set the whole system ablaze."

“The future of an entire generation is at stake. I have no choice but to approach the Supreme Court and file an intervenor application in the Maratha reservation matter pending before it,” he said.

“I am ready to carry the burning torch of Maratha agitation in my heart and knock the doors of justice for Vivek and millions of other helpless ‘Viveks’. Jai Hind. Jai Maharashtra,” he tweeted.

Parth’s statement comes at a time when after a series of consultations with the MVA partners – Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress and with opposition BJP, the state government moved the Supreme Court to get a stay on the Maratha reservation vacated.

In 2018, when the BJP-Shiv Sena government was in power, the Maharashtra legislature had unanimously resolved to provide 16 per cent reservation in jobs and education. The Bombay High Court has upheld the decision but asked the state government to ensure that the quota does not exceed 12 per cent in employment and 13 per cent in admission in educational institutions. \

However, the Supreme Court struck down the reservation. The Marathas account for nearly 33 per cent of the total 11.25 crore population of Maharashtra.

This is not the first time that Parth created ripples in Maharashtra’s political circles.

In August, Parth took a diametrically opposite stand and demanded a CBI probe into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and hailed the bhoomi poojan of Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The NCP chief has also publicly snubbed him. “We do not give much importance to what he says....he is immature," Pawar Sr had said.