A testament to Mumbai’s infra-structure woes. Hawkers make tea in toilets.
Send us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses; we don’t have enough of ours.
Would you like some biscuits with that?
November 3, 2008 at 8:30 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Dadar, migrants, Mumbai, Raj Thackeray, Tea and Biscuits
Out of touch …
October 31, 2008 at 7:11 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Maharashtra, MNS, Mumbai, Raj Thackeray
It is not unusual to come across posts from non-Maharashtrians, in the present heated debate, about how things should be different, about what the constitution says about rights of individuals, about how we are Indians first and lot of other high and mighty ideas. People somehow tend to believe that in the context of a nation-state, ideologies are more important people, that people exist for the sake of the nation and not vice versa. One such person is this blogger.
Here is my response to his blog for the benefit of many who seem to have similar outlooks as this guy. His original blog was in response to an interview that Shobha De gave to CNN–IBN.
“I would like to remind you, that to be great, to lead, …”
When did Shobha De say anything about becoming great? She said when you are in Maharashtra, you should learn Marathi (just like when you were in Karnataka, you should have learnt Kannada, then you wouldn’t run into a situation where you call the cop an imbecile for not writing in English/Hindi and he won’t call you an imbecile for not knowing Kannada).
“How would you feel if Mumbai starts behaving like this?”
What do you think ordinary Maharashtrians feel when you come to Mumbai/Maharashtra with a sense of righteous entitlement expecting the residents to bend over backward to accomodate you?
“Would you be able to boast about a future Ambani or a future Ratan Tata? “
Do you think ordinary Maharashtrians give two hoots about the Ambani’s and Tata’s? They are busy making their ends meet so they can survive in a city that is rapidly pricing them out of their livelihoods.
“What Raj has raised in here, is an inherent feeling that is present in all Indians, don’t you think it’s wrong and unconstitutional?”
Wrong and unconstitutional? What comes first in a nation, people or constitution? When the constitution is not working, it is in dire need of amendments.
“don’t you think that you should rise above parochial confinement and tell where Raj is wrong?”
We should rise over parochial confinement? What have you done to rise over parochial confinement in your home state besides escaping it to come to Maharashtra?
“When families come from other states and never want to live, it’s not a problem Ms. De, it’s a privilege.”
It maybe a privilege for them, but it’s a problem for the locals. Have you traveled in the local trains lately? Would you like your children to travel in the same inhuman conditions or possibly worse with uncontrolled migration?
What should I have done
October 31, 2008 at 6:01 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Bihar, Maharashtra
This post is in response to What can I do.
The question that you should be asking is not what can you do, but what you should have done.
What should you have done when …
1. the likes of Laloo, Mulayam and Mayawati were playing casteist politics in your home state.
2. Satyendra Dubey’s and Manjunath’s of UP and Bihar were being killed for fighting corruption.
3. the politcians indulged in all kinds of scams from fodder to the Taj corridor.
4. the politicians have done nothing to rectify the law and order situation in these states.
5. you elected politicians with not only criminal records but also anti-national record.
What do you expect the people of Maharashtra to do when …
1. your politicians make statements like “UP tho hamari hain, ab Maharashtra ki bari hain”.
2. people from UP/Bihar bring criminality and law and order problems to Maharashtra
3. New Delhi based media takes every opportunity to put down Maharashtra.
4. the Hindi based Bollywood induges in blatant attacks against Maharashtrian culture.
5. the infrastructure of our cities can no longer bear the massive influx of migrants from your states.
Double standards of English media
October 31, 2008 at 3:58 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: bus hijack, Rahul Raj
One of the issues of contention amongst Maharashtrians has been the utterly blatant anti-Maharashtrian bias amongst the national media, newspaper as well as electronic. There is no limit to which they will go to save their skin or to castigate Maharashtrians. Here are a couple of instances of their thick skinned hypocrisy.
Recently, Time of India published a news article questioning who exactly shot passenger Manoj Bhagat indicating that the police report does not contain any reference to this shooting thereby implying that it could as well have been the the cops who shot Bhagat during the crossfire. But wait, here is an article by none other than ToI covering the interviews of the bus conductor and a fellow passenger, which clearly identify Rahul Raj as the person who shot Manoj Bhagat in his thigh. Couldn’t ToI provide a reference to its own article when it sought to create confusion about the shooting injury of Manoj Bhagat?
Here’s yet another instance of double standards when it comes to putting a favorable spin on some news.
Allegedly? The bus hijacking by Rahul Raj is a fact captured on camera; CNN-IBN has itself broadcast the videos. Attempted? Surely, CNN-IBN is not indicating that Rahul Raj was trying to take the bus to Bihar? Rahul Raj was in complete control of that bus and he shot a passenger in the thigh, there is no doubt about that. Yet, how did they describe the death of the UP worker Dharam Dev Rai? Lynching?? Do these people even care to what that word means? Did they not notice that no one, neither the dead man nor his friends, had any visible injuries? Didn’t they notice that Rai’s friends appeared completely un-hurt? I admit that nothing can justify Rai’s death, but what can justify this irresponsible reporting by the New Delhi based media.
Violence begets more violence
October 29, 2008 at 7:01 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Rahul Raj, Raj Thackray
The cycle of violence that started last week with MNS workers attacking Railway Recruitment Board examination centers has seen new heights being achieved every day. The first news I heard was about some minor injuries incurred by the examinees such as this one in which an injured examinee from Bihar was treated for the injuries by a Maharashtrian family. However, subsequently we started hearing more ominous news such as the case of Pawan Mahato and how his father has registerd a case of murder against Raj Thackray; which has now been proven to be a railway accident and ironically a testament to the crumbling infrastructure of the city. Apparently, it is not just the ordinary Mumbaikars who are paying the price for overcrowding and under-development, people from the Railway Ministers home state are doing it as well.
There have been other cases of deaths as well attributed to the strong arm tactics of MNS and although none of them showed any external bodily harm, there can’t be much doubt about the culpability of MNS workers. While they may escape under the cover of accidental homicide, can our conscience do the same?
Indeed, the most shocking incident of the week has to be the Rahul Raj episode. While I can undestand that the people of Bihar might be in a state of extreme despair, is there any justification for this brainless act of hijacking a bus with a loaded weapon? Mumbai is not Bollywood and life in Mumbai is not a movie. Unlike what you may see on the screen, this is a city of cut-throat survival. People try to live here peacefully because they perceive they have a stake in it. It is easy for people in North India to make derogatory and menacing statements about Mumbaikars and Maharashtrians in general, but that is because they have not seen the dark under-belly of this city (and the state). If you were to step here for some time, you would understand why most of the residents, natives or otherwise, have tried to steer clear of the present situation. IF you don’t believe me, today’s incident on the Central Railway local (mentioned above) should be convincing enough. This is not the time to be a hero and provoke Maharashtrians in Mumbai.
But there are other lessons to be learnt as well. It so happens that the police officer who shot Rahul Raj is from the minority community. ACP Mohammad Javed’s actions were supported by none other than Uddhav Thackeray, while Laloo Yadav wants a judicial probe in it. So, do you think there is still some hope for this country?
The Laloo initiative
October 28, 2008 at 5:35 am (Uncategorized)
This post is a direct response to the Raj Initiative, point by point.
1. Family planning is not for us; we should produce more kids than we can support. Then, we should not send our kids to schools, unless we can fix the exam results. We should teach them how to handle a katta, so they can go terrorize citizens by holding bus passengers hostage.
2. We should make Hindi as an official language, so people from the Hindi belt have a natural advantage at capturing central government jobs.
3. We should rig our elections so bad, that the center can’t conceive an election in our state unless they send the Army. If honest Bihari’s like Satyendra Dube write to the Prime Minister’s Office and blow the whistle on our scams, the PMO will always let us know about them. If honest public sector employees, like Manjunath, complain about corruption, we can always riddle his body in bullets, pack it in the trunk of a car and set it on fire.
4. Bollywood stars should be given farmer status in UP, so they can buy prime farming land in rest of India.
5. Exams for government jobs should be advertised in North India in only select languages so not everyone has an equal opportunity at getting the jobs.
6. We should convince the US Department of Labor to stop the labor certification process before giving H1B visa and Green Cards for Indian nationals. People from Maharashtra are stealing jobs from the local americans by actually clearing the labor certification, a concept that is totally unknown to us.
7. We should send our politicians to celebrate Chaath Pooja in other states so they can make statements like “UP tho hamaari hain, ab Maharashtra ki Bari hain”; that will win us a lot of friends all over the country and thus bring the entire country to the lowest common denominator.
8. We should start direct train services to cities and states that are trying to develop and create jobs, because we can’t do the same in our home state. As far as trains that run only within our states are concerned, we should burn them every time some one points that we need to take the responsibility of developing our state. What the hell, we don’t pay taxes anyways.
9. 40% or so of the taxes collected in India, come from Maharashtra, but they should be used to build the Metro in New Delhi and as fodder for scams so we can live as parasites while farmers in Maharashtra commit suicide.
10. Let us create more Kashmir’s, Punjabs and North Easts by letting more people know that they have no stake in the future of the country. Let us follow in the footsteps of Radio-Mirchi and do a Prashant Tamang on other ethnicities.
11. Let us create a socio-economic environment where no MNC would ever want to come to our state and if they dare to, we’ll create enough un-rest that they’ll just pack their bags and go back to the lousy places they came from in the first place. Instead, let us encourage home-grown industries like kidnapping for ransom.
12. Let us also force public sector banks and companies to use Hindi so that more job opportunities are created for people from the Hindi belt. When that is done, let us force it on private and multi-national companies as well so all Hindi speaking people can move around in India with a righteous sense of entitlement.
13. We apparently grow a lot of rice. So, we should ask the government to fix the price exorbitantly high, so that our farmers can make a lot of money, while the rest of the country goes to the dogs (i.e. us anyways).
14. We should not purchase the TATA Nano, because it is designed by Maharashtrians.
15. We should build a railway track from my home town to the town of my in-laws, even if my family is the only one to use it.
16. We should hold a Bhojpuri literature meet in the US, a bigger and better event than the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan being organised in the Silicon Valley next year.
This is just not right …
October 23, 2008 at 6:00 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Raj Thackeray
I just saw this news item about a vegetable vendor dying as a result of injuries that he incurred during the clashes. Given how vested interests take advantage of such situations, I wouldn’t like to point any fingers right away. But, if there is any truth to this, then it is not only sad but also wrong.
Mainstream Maharashtrians understand the grievances of the locals, but let’s be honest here. We don’t hate north Indians and neither do we wish them ill. We want them to do well in their home state so that the natives of Maharashtra will also have access to opportunities in Maharashtra. The idea is very simple … everybody needs to have a stake in the future of their country and everybody needs to share the responsibility. We cannot have a situation where the government of one state expects its people to make all the sacrifices, while the fruits of that sacrifice are enjoyed by those belonging to other states — in particular those states who shamelessly fail to create any opportunities in their own state. Appeasing one community at the cost of another is not going to take the country too far and everybody will be worse off in the long run.
Besides, let us not forget that Maharashtra is not just the land of Raj Thackeray; it is also the land of Medha Patkar, Anna Hazare and Vinoba Bhave.
No one expects to deal with this situation softly, but let us also not cross the limits. All said and done, these are your fellow countrymen.
Martyr’s and all that …
October 3, 2008 at 5:03 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Bihar, Maharashtra
The Indian Army has a website for martyr’s and it publishes some interesting statistics that you can search by the state.
Here’s information about some prominent Indian states in alphabetical order,
State Number of Martyrs Population MPM
Andhra Pradesh 334 76m 4.4
Bihar 775 82m 9.5
Chhatisgarh 7 20m 0.4
Delhi 226 13m 17.4
Gujarat 80 50m 1.6
Haryana 2048 21m 97.5
Himachal Pradesh 1449 6m 241.5
Jammu & Kashmir 1514 10m 151.4
Jharkhand 64 26m 2.5
Karnataka 366 52m 7.0
Kerala 530 31m 17.1
Madhya Pradesh 333 60m 5.6
Maharashtra 1421 *96m 14.8
Punjab 3273 24m 136.4
Rajasthan 1491 56m 26.6
Tamil Nadu 642 66m 9.7
Uttar Pradesh 2400 190m 12.6
Uttaranchal 1123 8m 140.4
West Bengal 397 80m 5.0
MPM = Martyrs per Million
* Number of people worldwide whose mother tongue is Marathi = 70m
The language of equal opportunity
September 13, 2008 at 5:48 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: English, Hindi, National language
Yes … we should communicate with each other in English. Don’t we do it already anyways? That is nothing to be ashamed of. People who harp about cosmopolitanism should find it particularly attractive.
Why should a language that is not spoken by the majority be an official language of the central govt? Many Indian languages have nothing in common with Hindi. Most Indians don’t speak Hindi anyways; so not being able to speak English is not a concern at all. Making Hindi as the official language of the Central govt has only helped people from the Hindi belt capture central govt jobs; English on the other hand is a language of equal opportunity. In fact, making English the only official language will create a lot more opportunities in both the public and private sector, besides breaking the hegemony of North Indians on jobs in the Central govt. Stop alienating rest of India; let everyone have an equal stake in the country.
All said and done, the kind of apprehension you feel about Hindi losing out to English is the same that people from different regions feel about their language and culture being wiped out by Hindi. Our Indian identity has nothing in common with Hindi and Hindi is as much a burden on us as a regional language is on a migrant to that region.
Besides, India is no different than Europe. India is actually a British concept. Before the Brits, no single sovereign ruled over the present geographical boundaries of India and all those smaller Indian kingdoms fought with each other, just like we do today. Let’s face it. The present day India exists on a whole lot of goodwill and tolerance in the many different regions of India and not to mention the threats from Pakistan.
