Identity Crisis and The Sena
This is a follow up to my post about Bombay as a City State. And also a follow up to all the posts here about Scum Sena.
Aroon Tikekar writes a wonderful commentary on the Identity crisis facing the “marathi manoos” in Bombay.
There was a time when Parsi businessmen and industrialists from Mumbai preferred to employ the ‘Marathi manoos’ in their offices, for he was hard-working, sincere and honest. He had respect for scholarship, was kind to subordinates and obedient to employers.
His work ethics earned him esteem from those around him. To be Marathi was like an additional qualification in Mumbai and white collar jobs were waiting for migrants from the hinterland of Maharashtra.
Then Mumbai became the dreamland for all Indians and its commercial success created a wide gap between the success and failure, wealth and poverty. Politicians always have a field day in such situations and so was the case in Mumbai. Extreme successes bred disrespect for law; extreme failures gave birth to discontent. This combined to increase social tensions.
The reaction of the diehard Marathi Mumbaikars to all what was thus happening in the city was one of anger and dissatisfaction, for they had not anticipated a challenge to their future. They had shed blood for the inclusion of Mumbai in Maharashtra as the state capital after the reorganisation of the bilingual state of Bombay in 1960.
But their dreams turned sour after the initial euphoria of the creation of Samyukta Maharashtra was over. The continuous influx of people from every nook and corner of the country, made them uneasy and they felt that their hold on the city was being threatened with every wave of migration.
This is proved by how quickly Marathi Mumbaikars unite even at the slightest suggestion of Mumbai being separated from Maharashtra.
Read the entire article here.
If someone watched National Geographic or other similar programs on wild life, they may have noticed the hunting habits of wild felines. The behaviour captured on multiple footages show, when in search of food, the cats hunt down the weakest inhabitants – lame deer or new born zebra – as these are vulnerable targets, providing a high probability of success in satiating hunger of this breed.
Raj Thackeray and his cohorts are not manifesting any different behaviour – in their search for visibility and media bytes, they chose the weakest target – the poor taxi drivers of Mumbai. The objective and the means to that objective are remarkably similar to the wild life. Human race, for its existence, have either tamed such wild beasts or have left them in a reserve where the beasts operate in their known world, hunting down other animals, but leaving humans safe.
The Maharashtra administration has adopted a similar strategy of letting, in earlier times Shiv Sainiks, and now the MNS, to live, operate and glorify in their own environment, thus letting them strike at the weakest beings, whenever the need for political mileage (the staple diet of Indian politicians) arises, leaving the elitist and political races safe and protected.
The cubs have grown and have now been set free on the unsuspecting taxi drivers and shop owners. The cubs, Raj and Uddhav, have been well trained by the parenting tiger, who earlier would hunt ‘madrasis’ and feed the cubs. The comment made by a prominent editor on a TV program was so apt – "this is the legacy that has been handed down to Raj from his famous uncle".
It is so bewildering to see platoons of police and additional reserve forces guarding Raj Thackeray’s house, while poor taxi drivers and homeless people are left completely unprotected to be attacked by MNS followers. One wonders what the statutory obligation of state police force is.
But who really is to be blamed: is it the Audi SUV driving Raj Thackeray, or his followers – who follow his thoughts and lose their ability to think or rationalize. On the same TV program there was a member in the audience who was saying that these ‘Bhaiyas’ earn in Mumbai, and do not pay tax as they send all the money to their families in UP. How well informed is this individual about direct and indirect tax regime of India. If he had thought for a moment, he may have realized that the only direct tax is Income tax, which happens to be Central revenue, whereas most other indirect taxes such as Sales, Octroi etc. are state revenue and are paid to the Maharashtra government for each product or service purchased by the poor taxi drivers. Does he even know that a significant percentage of petrol price is Excise and Local sales tax or how much petrol is bought by Taxi drivers, contributing to state revenue?
The surprising thing is that a city like Mumbai, gifted with the most famous and wealthiest denizens of this country, has stood by and watched silently the horror unleashed by brain-dead followers of an opportunistic politician. Besides debating in the safe environs of TV studios, none of the known personalities (Maharashtrians or not) have dared to venture out on the streets of Mumbai to try to talk reason with wayward youths of the city and state. If all the respected personalities took out a quiet morcha through the streets, proclaiming solidarity with the citizens of this country irrespective of their place of birth, would it not make at least a small percentage see reason? And if the local elites do not have even this much influence on the minds of a common man on the streets of Mumbai or Maharashtra, then maybe the ’self-proclaimed protector of Maharastrian culture’ is protecting the right culture and is on the correct path….