Manoj Jarange Patil resumes fast today: Why the Kunbi certificate issue is back a year after Mumbai protest

A year after ending his Mumbai protest, Manoj Jarange Patil is set to start an indefinite hunger strike once again. This time, the Maratha activist is unhappy that the government has not implemented the assurances it gave during last year’s agitation. Jarange claims that applicants with established family connections to historical Kunbi records are still waiting for the promised certificates and caste validity documents.

The government, however, argues that the process of verifying genealogical links to these records is more complicated than it appears.

While examining around 58 lakh historical records, the government has found that not every descendant of these records is automatically eligible for an OBC certificate. Each applicant's genealogy must be verified by taluka-level committees before a certificate can be issued. Jarange is frustrated by the slow pace of this verification process. He argues that the government's focus on the sheer number of records examined does not address the issue of applicants who have been waiting for their certificates for too long.

On August 24, Jarange met with ministers at Antarwali Sarati to demand an end to the hunger strike. The government, however, maintains that the genealogy verification process is essential and cannot be skipped. They have extended the deadline for resolving pending cases to June 30, 2027, and have asked the committees to prioritize these cases.