Good riddance

The recent events in Mumbai, when people of North Indian states, notably Bihar & Uttar Pradesh, who had come to Mumbai to appear for a written test for jobs in The Indian Railways, were beaten up leading to many being hospitalized was a law and order issue, plain and simple. The Maharashtra Navnirmaan Sena (MNS) headed by Raj Thackeray claims to represent the ordinary Marathi people, ‘The Marathi Manoos’.

Did he actually speak on behalf of ‘The Marathi Manoos’ when he challenged the administration calling the Chief Minister and his deputy ‘spineless’? I am not so sure that the ordinary ‘Marathi Manoos’ has such contempt for the duly elected government. Raj Thackeray has found it profitable to speak the un-parliamentary language that he is so familiar with, only because he has been allowed to get away with it so far. Had his antics been nipped in the bud he would have remained a small-time wannabe politician. The Frankenstein called Raj Thackeray would not have developed had the Congress–NCP coalition in Maharashtra not worked with the ulterior motive of splitting the BJP-Shiv Sena vote bank with an eye on the upcoming assembly elections.

As we have seen so often in the past in many places, the politicians sow the seeds of hatred for their own narrow political considerations but the common man reaps the fruits of violence unleashed by these goons.

Raj Thackeray, the head of the ‘Goon Sena’ is at last behind bars thanks to the judicial system and the few individuals who found the courage to call his bluff. He has been arrested and in due course he would be held accountable for his utterances and his unlawful activities. It is my fervent desire to see the animal of hatred tamed.

Civil society owes it to itself to prune such weeds at the right time or else the beautiful garden that we so assiduously created on the soil of parliamentary democracy would become a jungle. And we all know jungles are full of wild animals. So the choice before 'The Marathi Manoos’ is the same as choice before the Indian people: ‘Jungle Raj’ or ‘Parliamentary Democracy’.

By making a valiant effort to tame Raj Thackeray the rest of India has shown what it stands for. It is time ‘The Marathi Manoos’ tells the rest of the country what he stands for.

image courtesy : www.gulf-times.com