The Cesspool of Indian politics
I have thought for a long time about writing on India and the quality of its politicians. We have had so many discussions within friends on this topic. Everyone agreed that India needed better politicians – some suggested that the rulers will only be as good or bad as the citizens so if we want to improve the quality of politics, we must join politics.
I was thinking about the Raj Thackeray issue. See even I am referring to the fiasco as “Raj Thackeray” issue. In my opinion the problem lied somewhere else but the media presented the issue as an anti North Indian issue. The basic point was that in the past few years, the adverts for railway exams that are held in Mumbai/Maharashtra are consistently not published in the local newspapers. The only newspapers that they were published in Maharashtra were a few Nagpur based newspapers and Loksatta in Mumbai. This issue had been taken up with Maharashtra MP’s but they had failed to act on it for whatever reason. (maybe they were vetoed by the all powerful high command or it was sheer irresponsible behaviour). This created a situation wherein people from the Hindi speaking states would know of job vacancies in Maharashtra while the local population would remain ignorant. This did not matter for a lot of years, but for the past eight years the Congress government has done little to generate employment. (Actually what have they done? What will Vilas Deshmukh say that he should be remembered for? Incidentally if Vilas becomes Vilasrao Deshmukh then will Ritesh or Riteish become Ritesihrao Deshmukh?) So the jobs available in Maharashtra have reduced and whatever Railway jobs were available went to the North Indians.
People started realising that whenever you call a taxi or auto rickshaw in Mumbai the driver invariably spoke in Hindi. And he never knew the places. He says “हमको नाही ना मालूम. हम तो कल ही बिहार से आया हूँ”. Unlike South Indian states, Maharashtrians are not averse to other languages so the communication was possible till now. Usually Maharashtrian speaks the language of the “outsider” inorder to continue the communication. I have seen similar traits in Gujarati’s too. Infact that’s the reason that most number of non Maharashtrian people in India are in Maharashtra. It is no surprise then that the Hindi film industry is based in Mumbai. Isn’t it ironic that the people who welcomed outsiders for so many years and did not insist them to communicate with the locals in the local language are now being criticized of being anti North Indian! But slowly over the past 10 years or so people noticed that the “outsiders” increased alarmingly. The percentage of local population to outsider population changed dramatically. And due to the inefficiencies and politics of the state governments, the job creation remained very low. (e.g power. Will Vilas Deshmukh please stand up and tell how much additional power was generated when he was the chief minister for two terms? But that’s another story. Actually the answer is zero).This created a situation of opportunity denied for the local populace.
Political leaders like Lalu Yadav and Amar Singh realised the volume of North Indian migrants in Mumbai and tried to gain political mileage. Chhat Puja became an opportunity for these politicians to project themselves. What hit the nail was the slogan – UP Bihar अभी झांकी है, महाराष्ट्र अभी बाकी है. The spineless government of Vilas Deshmukh that slept for so many years did not get the wake up call.
Lalu and Mulayam Singh who inspite of ruling their own states for so many years did nothing thereby almost forcing people from those states to migrate in search of opportunities. The leaders became rich … filthyly rich. Isn’t it funny that when someone enters politics his annual declared income grows exponentialy or even more than that. Yet no political party takes the initiative to find “clean” leaders. Does it mean all the parties are tainted? The fact is that no one would like to leave his home town in search of job. What Mahatma Gandhi said long back is relevant even today that – people should be given opportunities in their villages. What have the politicians of UP and Bihar done since independence for the betterment of those states? They have infact ensured that the poor remain poor and ignorant so that the rulers are not questioned. It would be interesting if a lie detector and narco analysis is done on all the Corporators, Chief Ministers, MLA’s, MLC’s and MP’s!
Shiv Sena was championing the Marathi cause for many years. But it had to restrain itself because of its ally BJP. Raj Thackeray was in search of an issue that could project him as a leader of masses. And he got the issue. Not many people outside Maharashtra know that Raj Thackeray thinks a lot differently than the current lot of politicians. He had at one point raised the question as to why the Indian farmer has to remain poor? He had even gone to the extent of saying that his vision of a farmer is one who uses computers and internet to access weather reports to decide the crops to be grown and has access to information to decide where to sell it. He had also raised the issue with the then state government about Bangladeshis staying illegally in Mumbai.
It is amusing that the Union Health Minister Ramadoss (is his real name Ramdas?) writes in his book that a non Dravidian will never be the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and he is not even reprimanded but when a Raj Thackeray demands that the railway ads be published in Maharashtra there is a look of surprise in the political sphere. I am not a fan of Raj Thackeray or Shiv Sena. For me they are just another political parties like Congress or BJP. Everyone is looking to encash the resentment of the people for whom opportunity is denied. But somethings have to be put in the right perspective and looked upon as natural justice and fairness.
Then the role of the media. The electronic media especially the Hindi news channels portrayed the issue as Marathi versus non Marathi. They never mentioned the games that Lalu played in getting the government notification on railway ads meant for Maharashtra being published in the Hindi belt. They kept on showing the same visuals again and again thereby creating an impression that the whole of Mumbai or Maharashtra was against these so called “outsiders”. Most of these Biharis stayed in illegal slums. Whenever an illegal slum was demolished by the BMC and it happenned to be a UP-Bihar slum then the Hindi electronic media would highlight it as an anti North Indian action.
Why does it happen in India that an issue that can be handled and settled by a police constable become a political issue?
I was thinking about the Raj Thackeray issue. See even I am referring to the fiasco as “Raj Thackeray” issue. In my opinion the problem lied somewhere else but the media presented the issue as an anti North Indian issue. The basic point was that in the past few years, the adverts for railway exams that are held in Mumbai/Maharashtra are consistently not published in the local newspapers. The only newspapers that they were published in Maharashtra were a few Nagpur based newspapers and Loksatta in Mumbai. This issue had been taken up with Maharashtra MP’s but they had failed to act on it for whatever reason. (maybe they were vetoed by the all powerful high command or it was sheer irresponsible behaviour). This created a situation wherein people from the Hindi speaking states would know of job vacancies in Maharashtra while the local population would remain ignorant. This did not matter for a lot of years, but for the past eight years the Congress government has done little to generate employment. (Actually what have they done? What will Vilas Deshmukh say that he should be remembered for? Incidentally if Vilas becomes Vilasrao Deshmukh then will Ritesh or Riteish become Ritesihrao Deshmukh?) So the jobs available in Maharashtra have reduced and whatever Railway jobs were available went to the North Indians.
People started realising that whenever you call a taxi or auto rickshaw in Mumbai the driver invariably spoke in Hindi. And he never knew the places. He says “हमको नाही ना मालूम. हम तो कल ही बिहार से आया हूँ”. Unlike South Indian states, Maharashtrians are not averse to other languages so the communication was possible till now. Usually Maharashtrian speaks the language of the “outsider” inorder to continue the communication. I have seen similar traits in Gujarati’s too. Infact that’s the reason that most number of non Maharashtrian people in India are in Maharashtra. It is no surprise then that the Hindi film industry is based in Mumbai. Isn’t it ironic that the people who welcomed outsiders for so many years and did not insist them to communicate with the locals in the local language are now being criticized of being anti North Indian! But slowly over the past 10 years or so people noticed that the “outsiders” increased alarmingly. The percentage of local population to outsider population changed dramatically. And due to the inefficiencies and politics of the state governments, the job creation remained very low. (e.g power. Will Vilas Deshmukh please stand up and tell how much additional power was generated when he was the chief minister for two terms? But that’s another story. Actually the answer is zero).This created a situation of opportunity denied for the local populace.
Political leaders like Lalu Yadav and Amar Singh realised the volume of North Indian migrants in Mumbai and tried to gain political mileage. Chhat Puja became an opportunity for these politicians to project themselves. What hit the nail was the slogan – UP Bihar अभी झांकी है, महाराष्ट्र अभी बाकी है. The spineless government of Vilas Deshmukh that slept for so many years did not get the wake up call.
Lalu and Mulayam Singh who inspite of ruling their own states for so many years did nothing thereby almost forcing people from those states to migrate in search of opportunities. The leaders became rich … filthyly rich. Isn’t it funny that when someone enters politics his annual declared income grows exponentialy or even more than that. Yet no political party takes the initiative to find “clean” leaders. Does it mean all the parties are tainted? The fact is that no one would like to leave his home town in search of job. What Mahatma Gandhi said long back is relevant even today that – people should be given opportunities in their villages. What have the politicians of UP and Bihar done since independence for the betterment of those states? They have infact ensured that the poor remain poor and ignorant so that the rulers are not questioned. It would be interesting if a lie detector and narco analysis is done on all the Corporators, Chief Ministers, MLA’s, MLC’s and MP’s!
Shiv Sena was championing the Marathi cause for many years. But it had to restrain itself because of its ally BJP. Raj Thackeray was in search of an issue that could project him as a leader of masses. And he got the issue. Not many people outside Maharashtra know that Raj Thackeray thinks a lot differently than the current lot of politicians. He had at one point raised the question as to why the Indian farmer has to remain poor? He had even gone to the extent of saying that his vision of a farmer is one who uses computers and internet to access weather reports to decide the crops to be grown and has access to information to decide where to sell it. He had also raised the issue with the then state government about Bangladeshis staying illegally in Mumbai.
It is amusing that the Union Health Minister Ramadoss (is his real name Ramdas?) writes in his book that a non Dravidian will never be the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and he is not even reprimanded but when a Raj Thackeray demands that the railway ads be published in Maharashtra there is a look of surprise in the political sphere. I am not a fan of Raj Thackeray or Shiv Sena. For me they are just another political parties like Congress or BJP. Everyone is looking to encash the resentment of the people for whom opportunity is denied. But somethings have to be put in the right perspective and looked upon as natural justice and fairness.
Then the role of the media. The electronic media especially the Hindi news channels portrayed the issue as Marathi versus non Marathi. They never mentioned the games that Lalu played in getting the government notification on railway ads meant for Maharashtra being published in the Hindi belt. They kept on showing the same visuals again and again thereby creating an impression that the whole of Mumbai or Maharashtra was against these so called “outsiders”. Most of these Biharis stayed in illegal slums. Whenever an illegal slum was demolished by the BMC and it happenned to be a UP-Bihar slum then the Hindi electronic media would highlight it as an anti North Indian action.
Why does it happen in India that an issue that can be handled and settled by a police constable become a political issue?
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