Since early morning Mumbai city, India's financial capital saw people from Maratha community stream in endless numbers and serpentine lines all over arterial roads.
At Azad Maidan, which has shrunk in space because of the ongoing metro work, saw hoardes of people dressed in black with saffron flags. Although titled as a silent march, there were slogans galore. "Ek maratha, lakh maratha," "jai bhavani, jai shivaji," "har har mahadev" and similar slogans echoed in trains, roads and on footpaths.
Today's march, which was the 58th since last year, followed the earlier pattern of having a group of girls leading the way and lakhs of men walking behind with placards. A group of girls presented a memorandum to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. None of the politicians were allowed to be at the forefront. Several leaders of different parties attended the gathering and declared their support for the demands of the community.
"We have come from Beed and we walked from Byculla to reach at Azad Maidan. Our demand for reservations has to be met," said Krishna, from ghevrai village. He said the rains have not been adequate and they might face another year of drought. However, when asked about minimum support price and loan waiver, he said that needed to be done too but reservations would enable them to get jobs.
There were groups of farmers from different parts of the state carrying placards demanding the already-announced loan waiver.
Kailash Shinde, a dabbawala from Andheri in Mumbai echoed saying reservations were the only way forward. "We came to lend support and strengthen the movement. I hope something comes out of this."
In the speeches different girls vociferously demanded capital punishment for the accused in Kopardi gang rape case, the primary demand of the march.
Chief minister once again reiterated that they are working on the demands. Opposition leaders like Ajit Pawar again criticised the state government saying despite promising action several months ago, nothing has been done so far.
By 4 pm the railways had started special trains to ferry the protestors leaving for their native places. The numbers varied from five lakh people to 10 lakh but undoubtedly the city had come to a standstill. The community left - taking back with them the exact same promises and leaving similar impressions on Mumbai as in cities like Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad and so on. In the meanwhile, Marathwada region continues to reel under deficient rainfall and stares at an.uncertain future yet again.
