Maharashtra Assembly Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal jumped onto the safety net at Mantralaya, the state secretariat in south Mumbai on Friday along with some other tribal leaders as a part of their protest to oppose scheduled tribe status to Dhangar community.
Even though the incident caught attention as intended, nobody was injured due to the stunt. The protesters included two MLAs and an MP from the ruling Mahayuti alliance in the state.
NCP legislators Zirwal and Kiran Lahamate and BJP's tribal MP Hemant Savara were among those who jumped from the third floor onto the safety net, that was installed in 2018 after a spate of suicide attempts at the secretariat.
After police personnel removed these leaders from the net, the tribal representatives then gathered in the ground floor passage and began 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,” Zirwal told reporters when asked what led him to resort to such a protest. “CM Shinde should meet the protesters,” he added.
BJP MLC Gopichand Padalkar condemned the action taken by Zirwal and said "he holds a constitutional post and there is no need to take such an extreme step".
Zirwal said the state government should offer protection to students who have been protesting since a fortnight against the halt to recruitment under the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) in Maharashtra.
This is the second demonstration led by Zirwal who previously organised a one-day sit-in protest outside the Mantralaya on September 30 to raise the issue of state government’s lack of response to MLAs from tribal communities’ who were urging against the inclusion of Dhangars in ST list.
Who Are Dhangars And What Are They Asking For?
A shepherd community hailing from the western part of Maharashtra and Marathawada region are called the Dhangars who are demanding to be included in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category.
The Dhangar community is currently included under Nomadic tribe list under Other Backward Class category and they claim that according to Centre's database Dhangad is part of ST and get the benefits of the quota while they don't even though its the same community with different spellings.
According to Indian Express report, the community said that a spelling mistake, "cost them their ST status".
Madhav Bhau Gade, chief of the outfit Yashwant Sena reportedly said earlier in September, “If the Chief Minister does not have time to understand the Dhangar reservation and our other demands, we don't need him either.”
Hundreds of tribals on September 30 protested in Gondia city against the inclusion of Dhangars in ST category as they alleged that the Maharashtra government was trying to do so.
The District Collector also received a memorandum which stated that the Dhangars were not tribals and if they are included under ST category it would be 'injustice' to other tribes.
State minister Shambhuraj Desai has earlier stated that the Maharashtra government will set up a panel including three IAS officers and the panel will try to establish that ‘Dhangar’ and ‘Dhangad’ are different names of the same community.
The Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court have earlier rejected petitions from the community on this matter.
