Certificate identifying Sharad Pawar as OBC goes viral, NCP says it fake

A certificate identifying Sharad Pawar, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), as an Other Backward Classes (OBC) member has gone viral. This occurs in the midst of Maharashtra’s continuous call for Maratha reservation.

Supriya Sule, an NCP leader and Pawar’s daughter, has debunked the certificate’s assertions and referred to it as fraudulent. “This is the ignorance of someone. Did Sharad Pawar attend any English-medium schools when he was in class 10? People should think about it,” she said.

Pawar’s details were mentioned in English in the viral certificate.

Vikas Pasalkar, a supporter of Pawar, refuted the assertions made by others that the NCP chief was an OBC. He produced a certificate of school leaving which identified Pawar as a ‘Maratha’ caste.

“A conspiracy is being hatched to defame a big leader like Sharad Pawar, using such fake certificates. NCP will not tolerate this,” Pasalkar told India Today TV.

Pasalkar shared a school’s leaving certificate from the Baramati district of Pune. It states that in March 1958, Sharad Pawar passed the SSC examination.

Recently, there has been widespread violence in Maharashtra due to the demand for a reservation for Marathas. Members of the Maratha community organised large-scale demonstrations around the state to call for reservations in public employment and education.

Manoj Jarange, a Maratha quota activist, decided to break his indefinite fast on November 2. He pleaded with the state government to hold off on hiring new employees until Marathas were granted reservations.

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