Mumbai: She is a writer, actor, anchor, avid reader—and now viral on social media. Meet Madhavi Jadhav, a forest officer posted at Nashik’s Sinnar taluka, who made it to the news cycle this week when she demanded an apology from Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan for making no reference to Dr B.R. Ambedkar in his Republic Day speech.
Dr Ambedkar was chairman of the drafting committee of the Constituent Assembly.
A video of Jadhav is going viral on social media, where she is seen reprimanding the water resources minister for what she calls “a deliberate attempt” to not mention Dr Ambedkar on Republic Day, the day the Constitution came into effect.
“Girish Mahajan didn’t take Dr Ambedkar’s name in his speech, whereas the names of those people who were not responsible for democracy and the Constitution were frequently mentioned. Why was the name of the person who deserves the real honour of Republic Day not taken during the speech?” Jadhav asked.
“People like me can get government jobs because of Dr Ambedkar. I will not apologise,” she added. She is also heard daring the administration to suspend her in the video.
The incident forced Mahajan to issue a statement saying that he had not intentionally avoided referring to Ambedkar. “I did not do it intentionally. I always hail Dr Ambedkar in my speeches. If you see, I am the only minister who wears blue on Ambedkar Jayanti programmes, and I participate wholly in those programmes. However, I express regret for the same if that has hurt sentiments,” the BJP leader told the media.
On her part, Jadhav told ThePrint she has immense respect not just for Dr Ambedkar but also for Savitribai Phule, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Jijamata Bhosale, Chhatrapati Shahu, Bhagat Singh, and others. She said she was fascinated with these historical figures from a very early age, when she was in Class 3. History was her favourite subject, and she was also inspired in the 1980s by Doordarshan programmes on the lives of these historical people.
“I was always fascinated by their stories. They were the real people. At the age when kids watched cartoons, I was attracted to stories of these great people from history,” she said.
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Who is Madhavi Jadhav
Jadhav, 44, hails from Nashik. She told ThePrint that she was a book lover even as a child and remained an avid reader. Her family couldn’t afford to become a member of a library when she was younger. But she was able to use poet Kusumagraj’s library which was not far from her house as it was free to use for two to three hours every morning and evening.
“As I was going to that library regularly, slowly I realised, more than poems, I was attracted to reading about historical books and autobiographies. This is not my fault that I am in love with these great reformers and freedom fighters,” she said.
Jadhav added that she was earlier undecided on whether she wanted to work or not. She eventually joined the service after getting married, and the 2011-batch officer is now a Class 3 forest officer posted in Nashik.
She has two children—a son in Class 10 and a daughter in Class 1. Jadhav said when her daughter was born, coincidentally on 26 November, marked as Constitution Day, her first birthday was celebrated lavishly.
“We weren’t the first parents to celebrate our daughter’s birthday in a grand manner, but that day, I performed a solo act on female foeticide. Many important people from Nashik, be it the mayor back then, or bureaucrats and the MLA had come. I wanted to give a message that only cake-cutting is not important, but a daughter’s birth needs to be celebrated,” she said.
“I am a firm believer in the Constitution, and the atmosphere at my house is also very liberal. I believe in equality and don’t distinguish between a boy and a girl,” she said.
Jadhav said she has instilled the idea of equality in her children: she taught her son to cook as she believes cooking is gender-neutral.
The 26 January incident was not the first time she spoke out. Jadhav remembered the time she objected strongly because three or four people were not given kits in a reserved parade platoon. “Even then, I spoke up that these uniform kits were government kits. Why were these people not given the kits? They were looking mismatched,” she said.
“At that time, the concerned officer yelled at me in front of everyone. I cried and reported to the RFO madam. And the kits were then issued to them,” she added, citing her outspokenness as the reason she is not friends with anyone in the department.
“I always have a book in my bag. Once my official work is over, I sit in my corner and prefer to read,” she said.
Apart from being an avid reader and outspoken officer, Jadhav said she has acted in many local plays in Nashik. She has even written five plays and directed two others. She is also a trained Kathak dancer. “I started my government job later in life because I was involved in all these activities. If I had started earlier, which I wanted to but was in two minds, I would definitely have become a Class 1 officer by now,” she said.
‘Don’t know if I will get promoted or demoted’: Jadhav
Jadhav got support from various quarters after the Republic Day confrontation. Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief and grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar, Prakash Ambedkar, spoke to her and offered support. Even Congress MP and the party’s Mumbai unit chief Varsha Gaikwad slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the incident.
“Republic Day is a celebration of the Constitution, and forgetting its makers reflects the BJP’s anti-Maharashtra mindset,” Gaikwad alleged. “People of Maharashtra will never forgive such ministers who are intoxicated with power,” she said.
“The truth is that the BJP wants to erase the Constitution and Babasaheb’s name from the country, because they hate the principles of equality, justice, and fraternity. They want chaos to spread in the country, exploitation of the poor to continue—that’s exactly what the BJP desires,” Gaikwad wrote in a post on X
ये वीर वन विभाग अधिकारी माधुरी जाधव हैं।
गणतंत्र दिवस के आधिकारिक कार्यक्रम में मंत्री गिरीश महाजन द्वारा महामानव भारत रत्न बाबासाहेब आंबेडकर के नाम का उल्लेख तक नहीं किया गया, इस बात से संतप्त हो गई, विरोध जताया! तो उन्हें हिरासत में ले लिया गया।
भाजपा नेताओं को बाबासाहेब का… pic.twitter.com/KeekRnUxhN
— Prof. Varsha Eknath Gaikwad (@VarshaEGaikwad) January 26, 2026
Meanwhile, Jadhav is currently up for a promotion. “Now I don’t know whether I will get a promotion or demotion because of this incident. Anyway, the department thinks of me as an enemy, so let’s see. Parva Elle (I don’t care),” she said.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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