Pratap Bhanu Mehta in The Indian Express:
“The most disturbing thing about the political fallout from Raj Thackeray‘s demagogic revival of crass nativism in politics may not be his own statements. It is rather what the reaction to his statements has revealed about politics in India.
“The crisis reveals yet again the colossal leadership vacuum India is facing. We have assorted chief ministers protesting at the goings-on in Maharasthtra. But they also use a language that refers to their particular constituencies: Biharis defending Biharis and so forth. But no one at the national level is a credible, consistent and forceful embodiment of the basic constitutional values we need to defend.
“The symbolic functions of leaders, whether they be leaders of parties or holders of high office, is that they consistently remind the nation of the boundaries that cannot be breached. But most of our leaders deal with these sorts of crises in avoidance mode. When the last wave of ‘son of the soil’ politics hit India in the seventies, Indira Gandhi was much more ambiguous in her response; and the contagion spread quickly. But we are now in a political environment where the refusal of our important leaders to express outrage will only embolden every two-bit leader to occupy centrestage.”
Read the full story: His freedoms and ours
Every institution in the world -be it a school, organisation, party or even marriage–expects its constituents to “pay back” in someway. A floating population only wants to “take”what it can get from different places, be part of Rome when it suits them, NOT do as Romans do when it is inconvenient and when/if it is pay back time, opt to “give back” to their origin state. If this is FREEDOM to be a INDIAN citizen , then is’nt the citizen equally guilty of using democracy for his/her benefit and later, giving parochialism the garb of patriotism?
Leaders are also in the same position. National leaders were not born in a day, they grew from regional roots. As India is a sum of her parts, the parts cannot be ignored. While these facts in no way justify Thackeray’s politics or hostility towards non-Maharashtrians, we must understand the root of these crass negative feelings. It is the belief of being used, rather of being ignored. So pay back in someway. This is equally a duty to maintain peace in diversity or to continue to enjoy freedom.
Also, if you want to migrate, do move. If success comes your way so be it. But if you want to share the success formula with say, ten other Mallus back home, transport them and live happily ever after in Maharashtra do not be under the illusion that Maharashtra is Kerala. Even national leaders cannot lie about this simple fact. India is India, but Maharashtra is Maharashtra.
It is a fact and one can think over the reason in its root cause. Instead of having a polity based on the unity of the people, what we have is the very old policy of the British Raj. “Divide and Rule”. Division on the basis of caste, region, religion, language etc. for the sake of Vote Bank. The result is slow disintegration of the country. One more point to think over is that when we have good industrialists, good businessmen, good sports captains, good beaureaucrats, good social workers, why don’t we have good leaders. Another serious point to ponder is that we don’t have good journalists either. How many editors of national dailies can we name?!
I think that as we have product life cycle in economics same is true for politics…The politics of caste , region and religion has been existing in india since long..But we tend to forget these things quickly and live happily .This nature of Indian public has saved our country from disintegration…..despite so many diversities…..
SO THE STRATEGY should be not to give any coverage of people like RAJ THACKERAY….they should not be interviewed at all……some stray incidents will take place but it will settle down soon,,….
IF ANY ONE HAS ANY DOUBTS THEN GO AND VISIT AYODHYA WHERE BOTH THE HINDUS AND MUSLIMS LEAVE TOGETHER AFTER THE TURMOILS OF KARSEVA………