The Goonda Raj

Tomorrow is valentine's day and people like me who have not yet found a valentine should spend the day trying to conjure up a valentine for the D-day. But, here we are, tied up at our homes because the streets are not safe to step out, we are not even sure if it will be safe tomorrow. The reason is Mr.Raj Thackeray. After a series of statements against north Indians and quite a few days of violent acts by his goondas, the state government has finally acted and arrested him. The media has been speculating his arrest since yesterday, leading to violence throughout the state. Being Indians, we are used to drama like this. So, what is so striking about this particular event? Events like this have come and gone, all starting slowly, taking an ugly turn and then slowly fading out in the background, leaving just a spot in history which is remembered for the heroic politicians (all the injustice done to common people and all the law broken is forgot). What worries me is that even the highly educated people subscribe to Raj Thackeray's ideology. I was shocked when quite a few friends of mine, all would be engineers, were also in agreement of his statements. A few politicians are bound to support or protest against his statements for vested interests well known to all of us but, educated people accepting all this in spite of the violence, is disturbing.

What the supporters of Raj Thackeray have done (obviously approved by Raj) is shocking. Beating up poor people, damaging taxis and forcing them to run for their home-towns leaving behind all their dreams about a peaceful life, a life that had some future, is not bravery. People are leaving the state ASAP, huddling like cattle in trains, reminding us of the terrifying partition. When you see people weeping as they leave the state, begging to be spared without violence, you start wondering if we are still human beings. So many people becoming homeless, jobless and without a future in a day!

It is interesting to note that all the violence was committed against the economically backward north Indians. No one beat up Amitabh Bacchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Shekhar Suman or other businessman or politicians from north India. When the MNS goondas were beating up the bhaiyyas they did not discriminate between good behaving bhaiyyas and bad behaving bhaiyyas, everyone was beaten up just because they were north Indians. Then, why did it not happen with any rich north Indian? It is because MNS is afraid, they can only oppress people who are not strong enough to raise their voices, people who are poor and weak, people who are illiterate and lack any kind of support in Maharashtra. If the MNS guys have guts, I would urge them to beat up all educated and powerful north Indians, as they did to the poor bhaiyyas.

If MNS does not want the bhaiyyas in Mumbai, it should also deny entry to people from all other states and accept that no Maharashtrian will be allowed to migrate to any other state. Then, Mumbai will have to get rid of the Ambanis, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bacchan, Shekhar Suman, Shatrughan Sinha, et al. It should also say no to all the talent of the bollywood industry not originating in Maharashtra, all the businessman not born in Maharahtra, all the foreingn investment must go. But, are the Mumbaikars ready for this? I don't think so.

Whenever a leader makes any statements, he must take full responsibilty for the repurcussions caused. Raj Thackeray is responsible for the violence against poor north Indians, he is responsible for disrupting the life of any and every innocent man who was beaten up and for all the problems faced by every common man in the state. But, I'm afraid he might turn out to be a hero for all that he has done. That is the way democracy functions. Just like Bal Thackeray or Narendra Modi have become heroes inspite of provoking communal disharmony. Politicians are somehow successful in diverting the attention of the gullible common man from mis-governance and making him believe that the source of their problems are people from some other category (categorized on the basis on caste, creed or birth-place). The common man finds it easy to blame the people from other category rather than speaking out against the all powerful politicians with their mighty goondas. They believe that unemployment is caused by bhaiyyas and not by lack of action by Government, misbehaviour and crime is seen as the misbehavious of the bhaiyyas not as the failure of the state government to enforce law and order.

MNS goondas attacked bhaiyyas and broke the law but, it does not mean that all marathi people are violent and law breakers. MNS is in no way the representative of the entire marathi folk. But, the miscreant north Indians who misbehaved (or were a part of the shakti pradarshan, power show off) are the representatives of the entire north Indian community and so the entire community deserves to be beaten up. Strange, isn't it? The generalization that all north Indians are bad was obviously the brainchild of shrewd politicians who seek to gain political mileage out of all this.

India is a republic and we have a constitution in force. As per the constitution, anyone is allowed to reside anywhere in India. There is no place for regionalism in this country. It is very important that we, the citizens of Maharashtra, give this a thought and take our own informed decisions. We should not allow anyone else to force their opinion onto us. We must not look at the problems from the point of view of the politicians as there always is more to each side..... The time has come for us to rethink our position and take a stand, the right stand.

Ring a bell? Agree with me? Disagree with me?
Leave a comment.

Author: Vj

A lesson from History….

When the English first came to India, they found that India produced the world's best cotton yarn and textiles in enormous quantities. They wasted no time in "importing" it from India. At that time, India controlled about a quarter of the world textile trade. Then along came the Industrial revolution in Britain and they started producing better and cheaper textiles. This mill produced cloth soon found its way back to India. The skilled Indian artisans were no match for the skilled mechanized artisans, the machines. Soon they lost the entire market, domestic as well as international and millions were rendered jobless. It was a bolt from the blue for Indian traders.

When the English had started importing cloth from India, they cushioned the impact on English weavers by erecting trade barriers. But, no such thing happened for the Indian weavers under the British rule. The Indians had very little time and the learning curve to adopt technology used in English mills was very steep. Also it did not help that the social equation in India (the 4 divisions in society - Brahmins (learners), Kshatriyas (Warriors/landowners), Vaishyas (merchants), and Kshudra (workers/artisans) had well defined job functions) did little to encourage tinkerers to develop mechanical solution for any problem. For any mechanical job, it made more sense to hire manual labor because it was cheap and widely available. As a result, India missed the train to Industrial revolution in the 19th century. The loss of jobs of Indian weavers was inevitable. They were victims of technological obsolescence!

History teaches us quite a few lessons and this is one of them. Today we watch the fascinating outcome of the Industrial revolution in awe. Imagine a world without machines, not many would call it utopia. What was a bane for the Indian weavers then, is considered to be the greatest boon by the current generation.

Such would not have been the case if Indians would have been able to keep abreast with the latest technology in the other parts of the world. But, they lacked what is one of its most prized possession today, the power of Information Technology. Had IT been as developed then as it is today, we may have had an entirely different history. Probably, India would have been a very advanced, industrial and developed country. It isn't very late even now but, for some reason, India has bypassed the industrial revolution and directly entered the age of Information revolution. As if it has understood that if we are leaders in IT, we can never become obsolete. One wonders if India really took a lesson out of history and this is the reason why we are now the IT hub of the world!

Agree with me? Disagree with me? Leave a comment……..

Author: Vj