With barely months to go for Lok Sabha elections, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asserted that Marathis “too” have a chance of becoming the Prime Minister of the country. “Marathis have ruled the length and breadth of the country, up to Attock, in different periods of history. I am sure they stand the chance of prime ministership too,” Fadnavis said during a public interview at the inaugural session of the 16th Jagatik Marathi Sammelan (World Marathi Conference) in Nagpur.
Union Minister and MP from Nagpur Nitin Gadkari and senior Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde attended the event. Gadkari stressed on the necessity to “guard Marathi identity along with national identity and both are complementary.” Fadnavis was also asked tricky questions like “change of guard from Narendra to Devendra”. He told the interviewer “till this moment, I thought you were my well-wisher. Not anymore”.
“It is true that consciousness about caste identity owes a lot to reservation but reservation is helpful only for job opportunities provided by the government. And such opportunities are only 10 per cent of the total. Once the younger generation realises this, consciousness about caste identity will wither away to a great extent,” Fadnavis was quoted as saying.
CM Fadnavis also spoke his mind on the caste politics, saying “Considering the demographics of our country today, where 65 per cent of the population is below the age of 40 and 45 per cent below 25 years, the expectation of ‘here and now’ is only set to grow. And those opportunities will be available outside the government. Of course, it is also true that reservation still lends some sense of empowerment to many of them.” “Denoting caste in government certificates will have to stay as long as we have to base reservation and other benefits on caste since most disadvantaged people are from backward sections of the society,” the Maharashtra CM said.