The unfortunate death of DharamDev Rai has grabbed the national headlines as well as eyeballs and clicks on the electronic and digital media. Nothing can justify the death of an innocent individual, no matter how accidental it is. I’m sure many people are aggrieved, as they rightly should be. But, if and when we are past this grief, can some one please pay some attention to the other side of this story from the Mumbai Mirror?
It has been very well publicized that DharamDev and his friends were workers at Khopoli, but what has not yet received the same attention is the fact some of the men (and a minor boy) who were involved in the assault were also from Khopoli. In fact these Maharashtrian villagers had given up/sold their lands to the steel plant back in 2003/04 in hopes of securing jobs for their families. Instead once the steel plant was built, a majority of the jobs were given to workers from out of the state, many of them north Indians. This was followed by an agitation by the villagers which involved morchas, hunger strikes and eventually fisticups with north Indian workers. The north Indian workers also organized their morchas which resulted in some of the villagers being arrested and externed.
So, now I’m left wondering who is smarter, UP/Bihar or Maharashtra? The way I see it … the farmers of UP/Bihar are keeping their farmlands and sending their excess labor to states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra. Meanwhile, these other states are asking their farmers to give up their fertile lands to develop SEZs in hopes of attracting jobs. There are 131 SEZs in Maharashtra which are slated to attract an investment of Rs. 1.35 lakh crores and generate 60 lakh jobs. For Whom?
Rahi said,
November 1, 2008 at 6:56 am
good logic for killing dharam dev rai.
but why dharam dev? why not those steel plant owners who gave outsiders a privilege over locals?
because they were an easy catch.
Rahi said,
November 1, 2008 at 7:05 am
dear friend, the decisions to migrate to a greener pasture is never influenced by politics. It is influenced by the desire to earn a livelihood so that one can feed his/her family.
So if biharis and UPites are leaving their state for employment in other states, they haven’t been taught to do so by politicians. they have come here because their land was not giving them enough to feed themselves and their family.
why are you people blaming them for the wrongs done by their political rulers. where shall they go then?
tugenensis said,
November 1, 2008 at 7:06 am
If you read the entire post, nobody is justifying killing Dharam Dev Rai. Dharam Dev’s death was not a planned murder.
rahi, as regards to your question about where the Bihari’s should go, isn’t the answer to that question in creating SEZ’s in Bihar/UP? Should villagers in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra, Gujarat give up their farmlands to create jobs that will go to people from outside that state? Meanwhile, the farmers in UP/Bihar retain their farmlands and also get the manufacturing and other jobs as migrant labors by undercutting the local villagers? Is it any surprise that farmers in Singur rejected the Tata’s or farmers in Raigad rejected Reliance?
Manish Jain said,
November 1, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I just want to ask the blogger or whoever supports the recent activities of Raj Thakre if they favor Outsourcing.
Why We Indians are so hypocrite that at one hand we are taking jobs of American Workers & at the same time we don’t allow our fellow Indians to work in their Own country?
Why we never think beyond state? Can’t we be called Indians only?
The last question, were they only Natives of Maharashtra who made the Mumbai coveted place?
Marathi Manoos said,
November 1, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Wow, I had no idea about the other side of this argument. Great find O/P.
Marathi Manoos said,
November 3, 2008 at 12:55 am
Hey Manish,
I am glad that you brought this point up. This point has been tossed around in so many forums it needs to be addressed. I would start by asking you a small question: Have you been to the US? If yes, great, then you have seen it all. If not, let me tell you that Indians in the US, are radically different than the Indians in India in every possible manner. Indians in the US respect and obey the letter of the law in the strictest possible sense. They observe and respect all traffic laws. They do not ogle at women like they haven’t seen one. They do not spit on the roads. They do not try to “score” on women in a crowded street. They do not invite their Indian leaders with a view of furthering their political interests in the US. They definitely do not raise slogans like “India to jhaanki hai, USA abhi baaki hai”. On the other hand, there is a serious, institutionalized effort to ensure that American citizens are given preference in jobs whenever possible. Have you experienced, or heard of someone’s experiences in the H-1 Visa processing? Every H-1 visa that is issued has to be supported with the claim that there was no qualified American available to perform the job that the person getting the visa is about to perform. Do you know what Indians are called in the US? Till you get your Green Card, you are called a Non-Resident Alien. Hey, NASA has a huge amount of Indian scientists. The Silicon Valley software and hardware companies have a huge collection of Indians. However, if I told you that NASA does not belong to the USA, or that Silicon Valley is not meant for Americans, what would you say? I would scoff at that. Do you know that there are pockets in the US that are deeply racist and intolerant, and that Indians are almost at the same social status as blacks? Hey at least in Mumbai, you wouldn’t be mugged or beaten on general principle on a daily basis just because of your skin color.
American Govt. has started several endeavours to ensure that the so-called lost jobs are reclaimed by the American public. One of Obama’s campaign promises is to stop the leakage of jobs to other countries? Can you now form a party of leaders and pressurize him saying this is anti-worldly? Heck no. When in the US, every Indian is aware that he is at the mercy of the American Government, and that they are not in their own country. They fear the law, respect the locals, and value the local traditions. They may follow cricket online, but they go to football (American) games. They may have a Diwali get-together, but they also celebrate Christmas with the same gusto.
There is abso-freaking-lutely no comparison. If immigrants in Mumbai were to behave at least half as well as Indians in the US, this agitation would be moot, and would have never arisen.
Marathi Manoos said,
November 3, 2008 at 12:55 am
Please see my blog http://contravariance.blogspot.com for more opinions.
Kaushal S. Inamdar said,
November 3, 2008 at 5:59 pm
My open letter to Bachi Karkaria who calls Rahul Raj an ‘avenging angel’.
TIMES OF INDIA should win a prize for jingoism. And Bachi Karkaria should move to Bihar. I gather it’s a much safer place. The Marathis are so primitive! And of course, she will find many ‘angels’ in Patna. I think, Ms. Karakaria, do think about shifting your base to Patna. And don’t worry Ms. Karkaria, none of the avenging angels of Maharashtra will ever follow you there. Why, there is still a chance that Kannadigas will stream into Maharashtra, but thank God, they don’t have to worry about Maharashtrians doing the same because they won’t even allow Marathi Theatre buses into Belgaum! Ms. Karkaria, In Patna life will be peaceful. You’ll be able to talk in your Parsi-Hindi accent and nobody will poke fun at you. As you have said, it is a land of angels. You have tried to tame the Maharashtrian devils for a long time, but they just don’t listen, do they? I am a Maharashtrian who was in a minority in an Andheri Building filled with people from North India, and I was still able to terrorise them. You are witty Ms. Karkaria. I am now sure that Bal Thackeray was responsible for Bosnia and Czechoslavakia too, and the word Bal-kanisation! Not just witty, Ms. Karkaria, you are wise. And hence, it is beneath your dignity to stay among the primitive tribe of Maharashtrians, so what if they were given their state by the constitution? So what if lakhs of migrants from Bihar and UP live in unauthorised slums, use unauthorised means to get the taxi and rickshaw permits and live on unauthorised electricity? And then Raj Thackeray makes a point of the Railway Board examinations being advertised in only the Zone A (I am sure Ms. Karkaria that you know all about it) newspapers. Who the hell do the Maharashtrian think they are? Can they even read? Why should the Railway Minister coming from the Land of the Buddha give an advertisement in the Maharashtra who has produced no such enlightened being? Oh, these Maharashtrians will go ranting about Tilak who started Kesari and Acharya Atre who started Maratha and incidentally was the devilish mind who said that the Marathi speaking people should have a state of their own! The cheek of the man! The marathi speaking people never had a right of a State of their own, did they Ms. Karkaria? You call Rahul Raj, an avenging angel, Ms. Karkaria. You are truly blessed! Oh and these Mumbai Police! Maharashtrian fools of course! They shot the poor fellow! Of course as you know that Maharashtrian population in Mumbai is on a decline, so they thought that his fellow passengers and bystanders were mostly non-maharashtrians. But why did they have to worry about that? Wasn’t Rahul Raj an angel with the interest of Biharis at heart? He wouldn’t have hurt a fly! Just killed Raj Thackeray! And who needs Raj Thackeray anyway? That would get Mumbai one Maharashtrian less. How well you know us Maharashtrians, Ms. Karkaria. For 50 years, we welcomed everybody to make a home for themselves in our State just because we wanted to show the who the Boss was right? Ms. Karkaria, I don’t know why they call you Bachi, it sounds like Bacchi. And you have made such a mature comment in your article. I admit that my little pun on your name is nothing in front of your highly intelligent, mature and responsible pun on Bal Thackeray and ‘bal-kanisation’. But then I am just an ordinary Maharashtrian, Ms. Karkaria. When you do settle in Bihar, please let me know. I shall come there to seek job opportunities there with some of my Maharashtrian friends. And then you could teach me a thing or two about punning responsibly and intelligently. I see that you are stuck in a land of the devils when you actually are longing to go to the land of the angels where young men like Rahul Raj will protect you with Z security. I know, Ms. Karkaria that you have really been instrumental in shaping Maharashtra with your enlightened articles, teaching us how angels look like, but I think we don’t deserve you. Go, Ms. Karkaria, we won’t stop you.
http://musicandnoise.blogspot.com/2008/10/in-defence-of-marathi.html
Rajashri said,
November 4, 2008 at 3:37 am
Hi Kaushal
Thank god someone has spoken about Bachi.I hope her karkar will stop now.It definately will when she goes to Patna.There she will have a lot of fodder from Lalu to write about.
Go on Bachi ,move! We await the witty articles on Bihar.Or will you be the anti Bihar writer there too?That Z level will be really necessary in that case.
Btw miss Karkar what is your country of origin and who are your ancestors?
Heard about the Parsis?Thats a great community who knows how to gel the people who said they will dissolve like sugar into the milk of a state?
Kaushal S. Inamdar said,
November 4, 2008 at 7:13 am
Ok. Here’s a thought for the freedom of expression and what the Times of India thinks about it. I posted this letter on the Times of India website, and they have NOT printed it. Let me tell you that it’s not for the first time that it is happening. The surprising part is how openly people living in Maharashtra foster anti-marathi sentiments.
A non-maharashtrian who has pursued higher education in Maharashtra and also works in Maharashtra calls Maharashtrians un-intelligent, lazy and gutless.
http://prafulkr.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/tough-action-against-mns-chief-raj-thackeray/#comment-1135
It’s amazing how tolerant we are!
tugenensis said,
November 4, 2008 at 7:34 am
Hi Kaushal,
This praful character is an idiot. He has the IQ of the baby picture that he shows on his comments. There is no coherence, no reasoning, no organization in his thoughts. Forget about him.
If you are looking for a decent blog expressed by the people of Bihar, you should check out the following …
http://mohalla.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post_29.html
This is an emotive issue for the people of Bihar as well. I think the intelligent among them understand the need for reforms, but when idiots run the show they don’t get much of a chance. Of course there is no love lost for Raj Thackeray and interestingly they also think that Mumbai is on a decline (which makes me wonder about why they still have trains coming to Mumbai).
tugenensis said,
November 7, 2008 at 8:26 pm
The following email exchange is in the context of this post. I’ve removed the id of the other person. I’m posting it here in the open in the spirit of an open discussion.
Dear D,
I appreciate your comment, but what you are propounding is that we should essentially be mute spectators to obvious discrepancies. How responsible is it in a democracy and what kind of a vision can we propagate if we only hammer on and on about the violence that has been sparked by the MNS agitation but never say a word about what causes it in the first place?
Regards.
———————————————————————————————-
I am a Maharashtrian, and I am very proud to be one, but only second to being an Indian.
Secondly, I could very easily agree to your points, which seem very logical, but I think the educated people have a responsibility they carry to safeguard a society from being radical. This is the least we owe our society which has given us everything. You can make thousands of arguments supporting your views, and they will all seem perfectly fine, with the sole problem of vision, democracy and a sustainable future.
Regards,
D.