MUCH ADO ABOUT MARATHI MANOOS

It is difficult to understand what is the issue at stake in neighbouring Maharashtra for all that hot air blown by every party making Mumbai to look like on big hot air balloon? By now, people have become familiar with the mindset of Shiv Sena or its modified version Maharashtra Nava nirman Sena. Whenver they have to face the electorate in Maharashtra – elections to the Mumbai Municipal Corporation is in the offing - they have been raising this slogan that “Maharashtra is for Maharshtrians”. Who said it is not?

The very rationale behind the formation of linguistic states is that it would give a sense of belonging to the people who speak the same language. Whether the Constitution makers anticipated that the political class in the country would stoop down so low to become parochial to the core or not, they, in their wisdom and remarkable foresight, gave us the fundamental right to freedom of movement.
Let’s be fair to Sena. This freedom is being threatened not only in Maharashtra but in Andhra Pradesh as well. (I will come to that a bit later) What is the provocation for the present cacophony of voices in the business capital of India?

Buoyed by his relative success in wooing the people of Uttar Pradesh, heir apparent Rahul Gandhi wanted to open an account for his party in Bihar which is going to the polls later this year. How to do it? He has to tickle the ego of Biharis who were at the receiving end in Maharashtra. He put his foot in the mouth when he said that it was Commandos from Bihar and UP, who fought the terrorists in Mumbai and saved the city from total destruction. First of all, this is a highly objectionable statement because this only confirms the divisive mindset of this fledgling politician. One cannot and should not look at the linguistic or regional background of NSG commandos for after all they belong to the nation. They fought not for Mumbai but for the honour of the entire nation. However, to be fair to Rahul, his statement that Mumbai is for all Indians is unexceptionable.

This statement was like giving a flower garland to a monkey. Remember Tendulkar had earful from the Sainiks when he made an innocuous statement that ‘he was Indian first and Maharashtrian next’. What one fails to figure out is what exactly ageing Thackeray or his cohorts want when they attack anyone who says “Mumbai is for all Indians”. Are they trying to emulate the mindset of DK and DMK of Fifties when they were harping on secession? No, ultra-nationalist Thackeray stoutly denies that Sena ever advocated separating Maharashtra from the rest of the country. In his own typical style, the ageing Sena leader taunts Rahul that his party does not need lessons from Prince Rahul especially since his party Congress was responsible for the division of the country.

Saamna editorial also echoed similar sentiments. “Sena had never said Mumbai was not part of India nor could seeds of separation be ever sowed on Marathi soil”. Fair enough! Why then this war of words and threats?

Yes, when it comes to threats, the image of the Maharashtra Congress and government stands sullied. It was the state chief minister Ashok Chavan who asked the cab drivers in the state, who are mostly from northern states, to learn to read and write Marathi to qualify for driving licence. This veiled threat was enlarged by Raj Thackeray, who incidentally was the Frankenstein of the Congress to corner Shiv Sena, to indulge in criminal intimidation.

The one who was caught in this crossfire was Shah Rukh Khan. Is he not entitled to his opinion on the composition of IPL? Sainiks want an issue and Khan gave it on a platter like Rahul Gandhi. Khan’s posters are torn, there are attempts to stop the screening of his film “My name is Khan”. Well, this may sound quite familiar to the people of Andhra Pradesh. It is only recently they witnessed the tamasha over “Adhurs” film starring junior NTR, and various attempts to disrupt the shooting schedules of different film productions in the Telangana region. Were there not threats against the Andhra/Rayalaseema leaders from undertaking tours in Telangana districts? Entrepreneurs from the coastal districts were lumped together as “capitalists” with the tone and tenor being as though the capitalists are “sinners” or “looters”, and warned against entering Telangana.

A legal luminary and former Solicitor General , while commenting on Maharashtra developments, says “This fascist trend, if not uprooted, can extend to other areas and lead to divisiveness...” Is he not aware that it has already spread to Andhra Pradesh with the slogan “Telangana Jago, Andhr awale Bago”. We can’t blame him. The problem is with the media and its priorities. For the national media what happens in Mumbai or Delhi is earth-shaking development whereas what happens down South is fit for only 30-second round up. Did the national media give the same importance to divisive tendencies that were in play in AP as they are playing up in Maharashtra now.

Be that as it may, let us revert to Maharashtra. A refreshing development is that the decades-long ally of Shiv Sena , Bharatiya Janata Party and its mentor RSS have called the bluff of the ageing Tiger. Both Mohan rao Bhagavat and his protégé Nitin Gadkari opposed discrimination on the basis of language and violence against people coming from other States.

Here again, it is not without political motives and certainly not because of Constitutional niceties. BJP and JD(U) are fighting the elections together in Bihar and if BJP does not send the right message to the Biharis, like Rahul did, coalition has to incur the wrath of Bihar voters. However, Rahul being a novice, he did not know how to orchestrate his political strategy and gave a handle to Sena bosses. While pandering to Bihari sentiments in Bihar, BJP seems to have taken the calculated risk in Maharashsra because Sena, anyway, is a dying force with Uddhav failing to shape up to his octogenarian father’s belligerence and MNS being a sideshow of the Congress. BJP’s game plan seems to occupy the “right” space that will be up for grabs after the senior Thackeray calls it a day.