Date: 21st Oct. 2008, I woke up in the morning and like everyday, I switched on my TV. It was some news channel with its “Breaking News”. To my surprise, news this time was indeed breaking news. It said 'MNS Chief, Raj Thackeray arrested in Ratnagiri at about 2:30 AM'.
Raj Thackeray has addressed the issue of growth and opportunities of Maharashtrians (“Marathi Manoos”) all the time which according to him meant growth of Maharashtra. It's good to see that he cares about its local people much more than most of our leaders who visit their constituencies once in a while just to ask for their support. Somehow I am not quite convinced about his intentions and approach. In his campaigns, I see same old tactics of politicians to misguide voters and common men, just to grab power and public wealth.
Just to mention, political career of Raj Thackeray started when he quit his Uncle’s (Bala Saheb Thackeray) party (Shiv Sena) and started his own political party “Maharashtra Nav-nirmaan Sena (MNS)” to gain some power and establish his own identity. Most of us already know how a virtually non-existent leader of Shiv Sena grew up to become one of the most popular leader of Maharashtra almost overnight. Since then he is trying to prove his superiority over his counterparts in Shiv Sena.
Now my concern is that if this is someone’s personal matter then why common men is being dragged into all this. How can anybody expect to show his superiority by openly challenging law and order? It’s certainly not possible in an educated society, but I guess it’s baseless to assume such things in our country where you can convince anyone to fight and even kill others for incentives that can be as small as a bottle of liquor and meal for one time. These leaders (I do believe MNS chief is not the only one. Almost 90% of our leaders are doing this) make use of this population and misuse their powers, resources, infrastructure and above all man-hours. All of above mentioned things are to a large extent tax payer’s money. So directly or indirectly it is affecting all of us.
Let us analyze few incidents that happened in the recent past:At the time when our popular leader got arrested recently the very first reaction of his own party workers (who I assume share same feelings for their very own state) is to torch buses, taxis, bus stands, toll plaza. What are they doing now? Is it a agitation against North Indians as half of the labor employed in these places are North Indians, or is it agitation against the system which did not take any action against their leader till it became inevitable. I assume, in the end, that it's nothing but agitation against growth and progress of wealthiest state of the country.
In the end they are doing same things against the reason for which they are fighting … poor people!!! Or maybe they have been ordered by their chief to destroy everything that has any association with North Indians. :)
Secondly, let’s go back to from where it all started? How is it possible that our dedicated leader has realized that this state is being dominated by North Indian population just when state elections are close? Why is he doing all this? If this is just to be in power, I have a different opinion on it. Assuming MNS might come into power by all of this. What next??... Raj Thackeray will become new Chief Minister of the state. He will have few more powers to influence local people or maybe he can go ahead and ban North Indians from working in the state so that his very own “Marathi Manoos” get a preferential treatment in their very own state. But wait!! He is doing all this right now and maybe he is doing it much openly and effortlessly than he will be able to do when he is in power.
What else might be the reason to do all this? Next thing which I can think of is monetary gains. But in common man’s language we call it corruption. Oops!!! Knowingly or unknowingly quite a few of us have supported a potentially corrupt leader in this case.
Huh!! Not again. It’s hard to believe so much blind followers of a person who has indicated his greed for money and power. If this is even 10% true, I simply feel sorry for the future of this state. There should be a law that can impose a life time ban on political careers of people with such intentions. But, we are living in a democratic country where anything is possible if you have power. :)
There is no doubt that standard of life and opportunities in few cities in Maharashtra is much much better than any other city in India. Having said that, we can’t deny that it's a collaborative effort of more than 50 years rather than efforts of a particular community or group. So it’s my sincere request to our Marathi friends to not get carried away without any reason and collaboratively contribute towards the growth of the state.
If incidents like this keep on happening, I, being an employer, don’t find a reason to continue creating jobs here when I don’t feel safe and I am forced to employ workforce on the basis of their origin rather than their abilities.
This is just my personal opinion and everyone is free to agree or disagree. I chose this platform just because I could not organize a rally in some huge ground or gain media attention like our esteemed leaders to express my opinion.
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I completely agree with most of the points Ankur.
ReplyDeleteBut, don't you think that you are being too harsh on Raj Thackeray.
I agree that what he is doing might be provocative but it's been done by almost all the powerful politicians in the country and he is following what he has learnt from the examples.
If you want to question someone then question the Central government, Supreme Court or Judiciary system for that matter.
I can see the same things happened with Mr. Ratan Tata in Bengal, lots of incidents in Bihar, Gujarat, J&K, Rajasthan, North Eastern States and UP. The number is countless and it's high time that Government focus on internal security matters then only worrying about Dalal street. I personally feel that this Government is focused on Finance almost 99% and Internal matters 1%.
Raj is being portrayed by everyone as a picture for using regional tactics and that is giving him all the publicity too. Laloo had a same era in Bihar, Mayawati has the same influence in UP, Mamata has it in Bengal. What else can we say?
Thats just a stupid argument to prove a point.
ReplyDeleteWhat Raj has done is trying to do something he is incapable of. If he did follow examples and didnt succeed, then he is an even bigger fool than everyone thinks he is.
When you have examples it in front of you, you have seen people execute the same kind of politics flawlessly, then there should be no reason for your arrest.
Lets assume for a moment, that it was done just as a publicity gimmick. He should know the repercussions and take responsibility for it. The way he is handling the situation, we are not far from a big riot in Mumbai again.
I, for one, am not against politics or politicians, but do it in your time and space. If it somehow enters my space-time, its outright stupid, especially if you get arrested for it and then have to go to court every now and then, after claiming to be the big leader that he does.
People celebrated his return from jail with festivities beyond imagination. Whats the big deal? He should not have gone there in the first place. Secondly, even if he did come back from there, I can vouch for a fact that he didnt even have to pull any strings to do it. Now that you ve brought lalu and mamta and mayawati into picture, just lookout for examples of their leadership skills, and you ll find that Raj is nowhere close to any of them. If he can be compared to someone, its probably an Uddav or someone of the same caliber. Maybe a goon in Bihar. Even he doesnt have to spend a night in jail if he doesnt want to.
So in short, a wasted discussion and a wasted argument.
Who knows - may be getting arrested was also planned by Raj? may be to showcase the power, to get publicity or some other idea which can't think about.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate minds like Lalu but they were also seen like this in some time of their careers. Who knows this guy may become a real big shot this way?
Lalu was in jail for long time and when he came back, there was festival all over Bihar. It's all about showcasing the power.
There is an unbailable warrant issued against Raj but he got the bail same day.
Look, its not about who gets what, its questioned only because it's in the economic capital of India.
There have been similar cases registered in past through out the country and its the first time we are behaving like this. Why?
Because, its giving birth to a new character. I think there are thousand other parties like this - be it Bajrang Dal, VHP.
Its a much bigger question that should be posed against the Judicial system and not against Lalu, Mamata, Raj, or any other individual.
That's just giving him a little too much credit. Even with the assumption that it was staged by Raj himself, all he did was prove himself more incapable of doing things right. Moreover, he s never going to win over "a lot more parties" like him as was mentioned in an earlier comment. Bal Thakrey will make sure that as long as he is alive, Uddav gets more importance than Raj. You never know what his death might bring.
ReplyDeleteEven if he somehow manages to win the election, all he would have done is turned the "Marathi Manus" mantra as a brainwash into every illiterate Marathi mind.
Lalu has never seen a time like this. He was under house arrest for a period of time. But the place he was in, was not a jail cell in Kalyan, but a 5 star room with ac, tv and all modern amenities unthinkable for someone under arrest. Even in his absence, the politics was being run as a family business by Rabri. Lalu never had to stoop down as low as to go ahead and slang other communities to get his popularity.
Just to add, his coming back was celebrated, not because he was released from arrest, but because people knew he would be in power again. His loss in Bihar was seen as a loss of power, but he was all over the central government the very next election.
Maybe, there is a possibility that Raj has something up his sleeve which we dont understand and which could be a lot bigger than anticipated by common people like us. All that he should be worried about is not creating another havoc in the country especially when he has live examples in front of him.
Similarity to "Jihaad" is what scares me here, and look what has happened to Pakistan and Afghnistan. Most of the nations with similar politics are no more. If not for neone else, atleast for the sake of his own seat, and for the sake of corrupt politics and the survival of India as a third world nation (although we have the richest men in the world from this country), he should understand that its not going to fetch him anything.
That's too much for a politician to understand. He (at the max) bothers about his name, position and his career. What you are talking about can be understood by macro level intellectuals who worry about the country.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you over many points but these questions should be posed to the honorable President, the Governor, the honorable Supreme Court as these pertain to and should protect Fundamental rights of Indian citizens.
There is no point questioning politicians about what is right and wrong as we would follow the trail and not curb the root.
We should not focus on any individual for these questions.
These ideologies should be questioned by a proper authoritative body directly reporting to the President.
I think you are right, they will wake up when something like Afghanistan would start happening here.
They are busy selling the show to other countries when their home is on fire.
Glad you could see my point.Coz, I have come across a lot of well educated people , with brains the size of a pea.
ReplyDeleteI am not saying, Raj ca do nethin about it. Its his upbringing that has caused him to go nuts at this age.
My idea is just "Jan-Jagran". Supreme court cannot do nethin in a democracy, if majority of the state is on his side. People have to realize it.
Me and Dopa were talking about this and apparently, we need to come up with a prty of our own. I was thinking, we could call it, "Brihanmumbai safai abhiyaan party"
Rohan, your point is well taken that supreme court can't do anything when you have almost half of the state by your side. But think just for a moment that if there is an efficient law and order system that can put you behind bars if you are caught damaging public property or impose heavy fines. Do you still think you will get so many supporters to do this kind of act without any good reason. Its only because they know that by doing this they can get a sadistic pleasure and no one will do any harm to them. More to come later..
ReplyDeleteAnkur, those ifs are a little iffy given the practicality point of view.
ReplyDeleteIn view of a perfect situation, Raj could just be put right in the midle of mg road, and shot with ak 56 from all directions. Get some sponsorship money from companies which could be used for India'a bailout plan thereby solving two major crisis in our country.
Getting out of the fantasy land, the only feasible options are - 1) Play along and ignore #$%@ like him, 2) Keep blogging to get out your frustration, 3) Koyle ki Dalali mein apne haath kaale karo, join the "BAAP -Brihanmumbai antim-safai abhiyaan party" and try to stoop lower than him if u have to and get them to see the other point of view , that is your point of view.
Well these are all perspectives which are well appreciated in a democratic society. If we want people to understand the true motives of people then we would need to bring them to our level, which is the whole underlying definition of Democracy. Bring society to your level, its not right to crib at every corner about the situation.
ReplyDeleteWell atleast some people think it is an issue.
Interesting discussion, but i think most of the people who will be reading this already understand the drama and have a opinion similar to those posted here.
ReplyDeleteRohan idea of starting a party is nice and the proposed name is even better.
And if this party wins the elections, it will prove to be MNS ka BAAP.
Cool, keep the discussion alive guys.
See you all in Jungle.
Where is this Raj Thackeray now? Why didn't he come out to help people stuck in TAJ Hotel, OBEROI Trident Hotel?
ReplyDeleteWere those NSGs Marathi manoos who saved so many Mumbaikars life?