The equation, “Sena = Violence”, (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, MNS, this time) seems perfectly balanced this time too. Vehicles burnt, a driver beaten up, Bachchan’s bungalow stoned, etc were some sadistic incidents that Raj Thackeray’s men carried out in Mumbai on Sunday. The nephew Thackeray seems to be duplicating his uncle’s agenda of the “Rights of a Marathi Manoos”.
It was indeed an insane behaviour to target the north Indians or the ‘bhaiyyas’, to be precise for their presence in Mumbai. Innocent drivers, hawkers, travelers fell prey to the political rivalry between the MNS and the SP (Samajwadi Party). Raj Thackeray has been making some arousing statements about the political party and its leader, Amar Singh. He also was upset with Mr. Bachchan for starting a girls school in UP instead of starting one in Maharashtra – “place matters here the most, forget the cause”. I fail to understand why such strong leaders (based on the fan following that they have) cannot react or get upset with things that are certainly wrong – development of infrastructure, child labour, female infanticide, basic education, corruption. These are certainly some issues which need serious attention and if taken care of can help in the development of the country. But no, our leaders don’t have the time to think about it, as pointing out mistakes in other leaders, political parties is on the topmost priority in their agenda. And who cares about the development of the country, we are all busy in “my Maharashtra”, “my Gujarat”, “my Jharkhand”, and so on. We are better and happy practicing regionalism than nationalism.
We don’t like Samajwadi Party, go and mob taxi drivers, we don’t like Valentine’s Day, go and thrash down Archies, Hallmarks – we can do anything that we like and react as our political leaders want us to without applying any rationale. We live in a democratic country right? We have the freedom of expression. I wish we had studied our Civics in little more detail during our school days and understood what democracy means. And wish to remind, we are also a social, republic, and a secular state – not many would understand what these mean.
Coming back to the MNS activist’s havoc, The Thackerays have excellent oratory skills that can mobilize masses. However, never was it used for any constructive cause. Many believe that Raj Thackeray is now getting frustrated with his party not gaining enough prominence and hence is retorting with such petty issues to rise higher on the popularity scale. If he is not comfortable with Amar Singh’s SP he should go and sort out things with him directly though political talks rather than igniting a fire in bellies of the hungry illiterate unemployed youth of the city. If Mr. Raj is furious with Big B starting a girl’s school in UP, why can’t he himself start one in Maharashtra. I am sure he would have equal amount of power and money to do so. Raj Thackeray doesn’t like Amitabh Bachchan promoting UP and being a brand ambassador for that state. In Thackeray’s opinion Amitabh should do all this for Maharashtra, the place which gave him stardom and Big B status. But Mr. Raj when you can be so much in love with Maharashtra that you can provoke communal disharmony, why cant Bachchan be in love with his state UP where lie his roots. And then if you the right to behave in the particular manner, so can Amitabh Bachchan. Shall I again need to say that we live in the largest democracy of the world?
It was indeed an insane behaviour to target the north Indians or the ‘bhaiyyas’, to be precise for their presence in Mumbai. Innocent drivers, hawkers, travelers fell prey to the political rivalry between the MNS and the SP (Samajwadi Party). Raj Thackeray has been making some arousing statements about the political party and its leader, Amar Singh. He also was upset with Mr. Bachchan for starting a girls school in UP instead of starting one in Maharashtra – “place matters here the most, forget the cause”. I fail to understand why such strong leaders (based on the fan following that they have) cannot react or get upset with things that are certainly wrong – development of infrastructure, child labour, female infanticide, basic education, corruption. These are certainly some issues which need serious attention and if taken care of can help in the development of the country. But no, our leaders don’t have the time to think about it, as pointing out mistakes in other leaders, political parties is on the topmost priority in their agenda. And who cares about the development of the country, we are all busy in “my Maharashtra”, “my Gujarat”, “my Jharkhand”, and so on. We are better and happy practicing regionalism than nationalism.
We don’t like Samajwadi Party, go and mob taxi drivers, we don’t like Valentine’s Day, go and thrash down Archies, Hallmarks – we can do anything that we like and react as our political leaders want us to without applying any rationale. We live in a democratic country right? We have the freedom of expression. I wish we had studied our Civics in little more detail during our school days and understood what democracy means. And wish to remind, we are also a social, republic, and a secular state – not many would understand what these mean.
Coming back to the MNS activist’s havoc, The Thackerays have excellent oratory skills that can mobilize masses. However, never was it used for any constructive cause. Many believe that Raj Thackeray is now getting frustrated with his party not gaining enough prominence and hence is retorting with such petty issues to rise higher on the popularity scale. If he is not comfortable with Amar Singh’s SP he should go and sort out things with him directly though political talks rather than igniting a fire in bellies of the hungry illiterate unemployed youth of the city. If Mr. Raj is furious with Big B starting a girl’s school in UP, why can’t he himself start one in Maharashtra. I am sure he would have equal amount of power and money to do so. Raj Thackeray doesn’t like Amitabh Bachchan promoting UP and being a brand ambassador for that state. In Thackeray’s opinion Amitabh should do all this for Maharashtra, the place which gave him stardom and Big B status. But Mr. Raj when you can be so much in love with Maharashtra that you can provoke communal disharmony, why cant Bachchan be in love with his state UP where lie his roots. And then if you the right to behave in the particular manner, so can Amitabh Bachchan. Shall I again need to say that we live in the largest democracy of the world?
And then what happens to the overall image of the state. Does the news disruption of peace in a city portray a good image of the state? I am sure it doesn’t. In effect is Raj Thackeray (and many others like him) doing any good for the betterment of the state? The entire stunt is for the vote bank politics. With such things happening, I, as a Mumbaikar really feel upset when media generalizes issues and pounces upon every opportunity to rape the “Mumbai spirit”. And this question is again debated on various new channels with eminent speakers, “where the spirit of Mumbai”, “does spirit of Mumbai mean disruption of activities”, “Mumbai is full of hatred now”, and so on. Why, for the acts of some bunch of fools the entire city faces defamation. Why can’t for once things get regulated and rationalized? Why do we love to get exploited, tortured and tormented? Why Why Why!
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