The Sunday Read

Summer is at its peak. Sun is at its torturing worst. Day passes in an AC office cabin. Nights in deep sleep but then come the horrible mornings with no electricity. It is really frustrating. Week ends are even more frustrating with nothing to do. IPL has come to my rescue to save me from the boredom.

STOI is a great companion on Sundays. This Sunday I wake up to the reports of Raj Thackeray's Shivaji Park rally which, as usual, drew the media attention that it needed. Now, there is something about this man, Raj, which makes me think. He asks some uncomfortable questions, makes some boisterous statements, ridicules his opponents in an uncivilised manner and tries to imitate the Big Thackeray. In the end he makes me think.

Warning: You may find this piece of writing as a jingoists rambling but I fiercely deny to be one.

As the TOI report said Raj trained his guns again on Bhaiyyas, dared the state government to arrest him, poked fun at his usual targets Amar Singh, Lalu and Abu Azmi. Then moved on to show how Big B prefers UP over Maharashtra.

Now if you can sense something from his speeches, he is carefully giving a way out to a long standing fears of Maharashtrians of Mumbai. ( The manner in which he is doing it, is questionable, though) The fear of losing control over city's affairs, the fear of Marathi culture being rooted out, the fear of being ruled by "others". These fears have been there for long. Shivsena attempted to allay these fears in earlier times. But it changed course as the time progressed. Now the time has come when the situation in Mumbai is such that if you are a Marathi, you will give a second thought on what you see around yourself. The big rallies held by North Indians, the increasing number of theatres showing Bhojpuri movies and the same time Marathi movies not getting place for screening, the local media attention given to the likes of Amar Singh, Abu Azmi, the huge celebrations of UP Divas and Chath Pooja, etc.

Now it doesn't require a Raj Thackeray to sense what is coming... One example will clear things. BMC has 27 North Indian Corporators out of total strengh of 227. Now when these 27 demand the proceedings of BMC should be strictly in Hindi then there is something wrong this. Such demand defeat the essence of States being made on linguistic basis.Now a common-man Bhaiyya has nothing to do with this. He is happy to work hard and live in peace. But the vote bank politics being played by their leaders gives birth to the Raj Thackerays. In this process ultimately who suffers is the poor taxi driver or the hapless vegetable vendor. Beating up Taxi men is not the solution. I will keep this thing aside in this post.

I, personally, will be more than happy to be ruled by Shivsena or Raj Thackeray rather than some UP wallahs. Not because they are from UP but because they have proven track record of destroying what was good and taking the system to new lows.

Let us come to what has been on my mind most, the Hindi news channels. They are inherently biased when they report anything about Raj. These channels bring in North Indian Netas who start giving lectures about Human Rights, Constitutional rights and they advise Maharshtrian public not to elect people like Raj. I question their credibility. These men have turned UP, Bihar into living hells and they are trying to teach others whom to vote and whom not to. They are the root cause of the problem Had the situation in UP, Bihar not been so bad, the problem of outsiders in Mumbai won't exist.

There were few questions like why the % of Biharis in Railways has been on the rise for last 7-8 years, why Rail Budget gives Mumbai/Maharashtra a pittance as compared to Bihar, why suddenly in Mumbai Chath Pooja is being celebrated on such a large extent, why similar statements by South Indian leaders don't come under the scanner,etc. These are uncomfortable questions. Nobody answers these questions and this makes a common Marathi like me to think a little deeper about the issue. These questions are the ones about which a common Marathi Manus is concerned. It is just that Raj Thackeray has grabbed the opportunity to voice these concerns. His methods should be rejected in their entirety but until one finds saitsfactory answers to above questions I fear that Raj will be successful in his tactics, needless to say, which is not good for the idea of Republic of India.

Meanwhile The Great Khali is back (with his sexy wife). You can catch him 24 * 7 on AAJ TAK, Star News, India TV,etc. :-)) IPL is inching towards becoming a bore phenomenon with the exit of Aussies. Let's see. Hope you will have a cool week ahead. N yes Comments will be appreciated!!!