It all started with Raj Thakarey criticizing and mocking the North Indian festival of 'Chath puja'. He then went on with his regular violent language demanding explanations from the Bacchans for their contribution to Uttar Pradesh (The new school named after Aishwarya Rai, et al). If that was not enough, he later provoked young minds further to retaliate against the North Indians who have plundered his 'Mumbai' and robbed them off jobs.
Now we all know that the Shivsena has always flagged the 'Mee Marathi' card for years, first to gain a foothold amongst the Marathi population and then to better their election results. Evidently, Raj Thakarey, who has broken all ties with the Sena, has followed his uncle's (Shivsena supremo Bal Thakarey's) footsteps to relaunch his own fast-finishing political career
And then, to add to all the venom, we required another equally power-hungry Samajwadi Party leader, who made dramatic statements and provided lathis to his North Indian supporters (Read - people who were hired to act like they are his North Indian supporters) to take revenge against Raj Thakarey.
Taxis were burnt by the MNS people in protest, they targetted every single North Indian driver, hawker, or passerby to fight for their land. (Read - gain political mileage). Early morning reports confirm that the Bacchans 'Prateeksha' bungalow was attacked by two 'unidentified' men. Of course, the cops continue to deny these reports even when journalists have photo proofs.
Bombay has always been such a beautiful, accomodating and cosmopolitan city. I sometimes don't understand why such lovely, adjusting people ever let ugly incidents such as the '91-'92 riots, '93 blasts, and so on to happen. I am the third generation of my family to be born and brought up in Bombay and I ask myself, do I really consider the North Indians, South Indians, East Indians, international citizens outsiders? NO!
A true Bombayiite can never consider anyone an outsider. All who love Bombay, would tell you that anyone contributes to the city's well-being, economy, and entertainment quotient has, is and will always be considered as much a part of the city as themselves. Yes, maybe continuous entry of people into the city for work can get too taxing on the infrastructure, maybe that's why there are thrice as much slums as 10 years back but then aren't we too be blamed for all this? The government and municipal authorities need to ensure all this doesn't happen in the first place. Bombay was always a land of opportunity and how exactly is Mr. Thakarey proposing to stop millions of people coming to Bombay with hope in their eyes to make it big? KILL THEM ALL, ofcourse. Today he is after the UP and Bihar folks and manage to win a few seats for his party. Next elections, he might protest against all the Punjabis.....
I think we all need to stand up and for once shoo away such scatterbrained or highly manipulative political wannabes and tell them all we want to do is to live in peace.
