MANIPURI YOUTH WELCOME IN TAMIL NADU !

If you think that Saudi Arabia or other Arab countries alone import cheap labour from India, you may have to change your opinion. Within our own country there is inter-state migration because of appalling poverty and lack of development in one region and relative affluence in other regions. If it is exploitation of poverty by some, it is mere survival instinct for some others.

No. I am not just talking about Biharis who have registered their presence in every State and not just Mumbai over which Thackerays are making so much noise. Youngsters in the age groupof 15-25 from Manipur, Assam and also from Nepal have migrated, may not be in large numbers, to various parts of Tamil Nadu. Their main destination is 3-star hotels and restaurants.

Thank God for small mercies. Kalaignar Karunanidhi is in power and the entire state is his family property like the Maharajas of yesteryears with his wives (how did he escape from the Hindu marriage act is a puzzle to everyone) and their children and grand children having economic interests in every field of human activity in the state, legal or otherwise. Therefore he or his progeny in politics are not unduly bothered about these migrations unlike power-hungry Thackerays who have an eye on Marathi vote bank. After all, Kalaignar or his party is no less parochial than Shiv Sena. Let’s not forget that it is the DMK which is the forerunner for regionalism in the country.

It is a different form of racism, if we may say so, that is on play in the hotels and restaurants of major towns in Tamil Nadu. Not far away from the most scared temple of Kamakshi in Kanchipuram, if you enter some of the decent restaurants, you will find a visual display of this kind of racism. You would find dark-skinned Dravidians, rather pure breed, serving hot idlis, dosas with steaming Sambar cups, and very fair-complexioned (lemon coloured)Manipuris, Assamese and Nepalis with distinct ethnic features, clearing the plates and cleaning the tables and floors. The contrast would be quite stark. For colour conscious Tamils, it is quite an interesting scene.

I was curious to know how Manipuris, Assamese and Nepalis, who do not share the cultural and civilisational ethos of Tamils and without knowing a word of Tamil land in places like Kanchipuram, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore etc. I was told that it is not that they land here on one fine morning. Owners or their middlemen visit North-East for mass recruitment just like IT czars go in for campus recruitment.

Why are they not given relatively decent jobs of stewards or suppliers, but made to do menial jobs like cleaning the floors or tables, toilets, etc? I was told that these guys do not pick up the local Tamil dialect quite easily and they can’t be given the job of interacting with the guests/customers.

Are they not getting “locals” for the “menial” jobs? The answer made me to sit up and take note which is not without its positive side. “Local” youth are not prepared to do such jobs as most of them are educated or have become skilled labour with the mushrooming ITIs offering them training in various trades. Industrialisation of the southern states has enabled absorption of such skilled labour. After all, nature leaves no vacuum. Manipuris and their brethren from the North East seem to fill the void in Tamil Nadu. No one says that they have stolen the jobs of the local Tamils.
Is there a lesson for the ruling class in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam in the Tamil Nadu phenomenon, leaving aside the discrimination and exploitation factors apart? It is all fine raising peurile slogans like “Mumbai for all Indians” and “India for Indians”. Who said it is not? Should we have to be told or reminded every now and then?

Thackerays may be harsh, crude and uncouth. Violence cannot be the medium for their message. If you look at the target of Thackerays’ wrath, it is the poorer section from Bihar and UP who eke out their livelihood as taxi drivers, coolies, milkmen, domestic helps, etc. What these paper tigers in Maharashtra should be told is that Biharis are now everywhere and not just in Mumbai. Oriyas also started following the footsteps of their Bihari brethren. A majority of the cab drivers in Kolkatta are from Bihar. They had spread far and wide.

Even in the new state of Sikkim their presence is noticeable especially in the hotels and restaurants. Tsongo lake (a tourist spot in Sikkim, but known for its avalanches) is almost on the China border where, thanks to AK Antony, roads are being widened and repaired because of the threats from our northern neighbour. You can find Biharis there making their livelihood doing odd jobs.

It may be unfair to Biharis if we conclude that they are semi-literates or illiterates capable of doing only menial jobs. Academic institutions in Delhi are full of Biharis. If you advertise for any post in Delhi, more than 50% of the applicants would be Biharis who fled Bihar during the chaotic rule of Lalu and his wife and landed in Delhi for higher studies and jobs. That’s what Lalu brand of socialism or Mulayam brand of secularism did to Bihar and UP.

Just because so-called socialists like Lalu or Mulayam, or Dalit Netri, in the name of dogma or having a vested interest in the promotion and sustenance of poverty and casteism, refuse to invest in long-term development, and force the people to flee the state just to keep their body and soul together, should those netas go scot free? Should they not be accountable for their abysmal failure to develop the states and to provide for gainful employment to their people. Some of them may not be in power today. But their sins are haunting their people to be at the receiving end of parochial bigots. It is all fine to say Constitution provides freedom of movement. But the spirit of the same Constitution mandates the rulers for providing livelihood for the people. What did these socialist worthies do except mouthing platitudes and promoting casteism and communalism?

Yes, Rahul Gandhi might have had a fancy for “travelogues” in Mumbai. His focus on UP and Bihar to reinvent the Congress may be for power. But, if he can reverse the pernicious trend set by the outdated netas and help taking these states towards development, we can forgive the ambitions of the dynasty, however much it is distasteful. There are reports that the present chief minister Nitish Kumar has achieved some success in reversing the trend. The only way to defeat Thackerays is to develop states like Bihar and UP. We can say “cheers” to anyone who does it – Nitish or Rahul!

Tamil Nadu has shown the way. A state whose leaders were once talking of secession has now opened its doors to North-east – something unimaginable in the sixties and seventies. Development is the mantra to smoke out the Tigers of Maharashtra, not empty slogans and counterslogans.