Sorrows of a 'Growing' Nation

Indeed a problem -

The Lion has a very peculiar trait : male lion kills his female’s cubs which do not belong to him so that he does not end up wasting time and energy on protecting those cubs. Maharashtra’s security force has protected us for so many years ably, but it is no longer good enough, may be the time has come for home department, facing acute shortage of manpower, to adopt the lion’s strategy. Maharashtra’s 90 Million population is already too much for them [for that matter, it is too much considering the resources and infrastructure available …. But who thinks about that ?]

Poor cops, they kill down a man with a gun in his hand to protect a large number of people out there, as it stands now, the encounter is set to through ministerial investigation. Instead of giving then a pat on their back, Politicians are venting out their ‘regional’ anger on Mumbai Police and Maharashtra home minister.

That brings me to the point of the young Thackeray : the guy has caused some turbulence in Maharashtra to be in the limelight for the past few months. Some time or the other Raj has brought to the fore some issues which are absolutely valid and some, in fact, are necessary to be brought out. Sadly (or may be) the priority is confused and action heavily misdirected (definitely). Cause of limiting Migration is something I support but the methods used by one of the political parties is wrong and inhuman.

All need to be informed about Maharashtra over some critical faces which depict the state :-

1. Literacy rate in Maharashtra is 78% (much better than all major Hindi speaking states), interestingly, this rate is even more higher when it comes to people with their Mother tongue as Marathi.

Literacy rate in Hindi-speaking population is much lower, 55% in UP and 47% in Bihar contribute big time.

2. Maharashtra is best in India in terms of Foreign and industrial investment. Hardly any foreign investment in any of the northern states on India.

3. Most number of Internet users, highest percentage of post-graduates and doctorates in the total population, biggest emigration ratio for specialized services abroad.

4. The single most ‘Cosmo’ state; it’s very easy for any person speaking any language following any culture or with any faith to relocate to Maharashtra.

5. The Maharashtrian population is considered to be the most liberal society with best female security and best woman empowerment practices.

Now, The problems (with descending order of severity) for Maharashtra :-

1. Infrastructure woes; unprecedented shortage of power and water alongwith with dilapidated urban structures all over the state

2. Increased crime rate; most of people currently being prosecuted for spreading / causing terror belong to Hindi speaking regions

3. Loss of jobs for un-skilled / less-skilled locals; let’s say if a Maharashtrian labor demands Rs 300 wage per day for a certain work, a outside labor does the same work for Rs 150 only. (the outsiders generally do not bring their families along and hence the average number of dependants is much less, to add to that, they can stay ‘anywhere’ and ‘in any condition’) {now, this is priority no. 1 for Raj}

4. Demographic imbalance / skewed sex ratio; the unskilled migration is heavily constituted by males (more than 90%). Maharashtra’s sex ratio today stands at just over 920.

5. Locals agitation and anger; being brought up in Hindi-Marathi Family, I have also seen north India very closely and I can safely conclude that Hindi-speaking people are utterly disrespectful, arrogant towards other cultures, this can be attributed to poor education standards and low average literate generations.

A few questions :

The most developed nation USA has got the most diverse population; Maharashtra could follow the suite in Indian context.

è USA has very strong and strict security ring, it has suffered only one terror attack (of course we cannot count the number of terror attacks but still a single state Maharashtra has suffered more than the entire nation of the US). Person is made to go through numerous checks before he could enter USA while poor, unskilled people (who may have criminal intents) and even Bangladeshis, Pakistanis (without visas) are making it to Maharashtra very easily.

è And mind you, Barak Obama is planning to levy taxes on outsourcing to safeguard American interests and most probably discourage Asians to enter the US from now on.

We may lose cheap labor

è Security should, no, MUST be given highest priority. Next on the list should be Infrastructure. Rather than protecting and pampering the businesses and their interests, time has come to look towards overall development and thorough progress.

è Let’s be happy to lose this cheap labor as it finally brings imbalanced progress, lack of water, load shedding, roads with potholes, dirty public places and the queen of it all, slums.

Moving on with the culprits -

And yes, Let me congratulate the biggest winners: 1. Politicians 2. Media

The politicians in Bihar managed to confer gallantry upon a guy with a gun in his hand and criminal intents in his mind. After Reservation bill, Amarnath land transfer, attacks on churches and Nano ouster from Bengal, this was a major win for the great Indian politicians. Let me re-iterate, even the MNS was not at its action-best when it acted violently against the innocent poor people. However, I agree the problem has worsened and MNS hit the nail bang on target though a little too late.

Media had its moments too; referring to criminals by their community names is a sin in journalism. In India, print and e-media irresponsibly refer to criminals as ‘Hindus attacking churches’, ‘Muslim youth protesting against Police’, ‘Marathis kill another north Indian guy’, reason enough to annoy people from those communities. After 1990, in the liberated e-world, modern media is perhaps the worst thing to have happened to India. The faster media have been misused for games of TRPs; attract money while safely ignoring long-term public interest. Television media has been so strong in sending (many times wrong) messages that politicians have used them to market and promote their personas, parties and agendas.

Why no one questioned Bihari leaders to why they failed to provide jobs in Bihar itself ?

Why every person born in UP or Bihar has to rely on Migration for jobs ?

Why is percentage of people in agriculture / agro-enabled businesses decreasing in states blessed with rivers like Ganges, Yamuna, Narmada, Indus, Sutlej ? (of course, the land under cultivation is on decline in Maharashtra, TN and K’taka too, the effects are less severe coz of less dependency on agri-businesses)

When Issue of demographic imbalance can affect Amarnath Region, why is it given less importance in Maharashtra ?

Some criminal gets killed righteously by the police or someone gets killed in fight over seats in a train, why do media have to blame MNS without any proof ? and how does the very honorable Railway minister of India dares to comment : “every train to and from Maharashtra will cease to serve the state” ? Mind you, Railway does not belong to ‘you’ or ‘your’ state, Mr Yadav.

Why is that every other city in UP/Bihar is connected to Mumbai through railways while there are comparatively very few trains from Mumbai to Chennai/Bangalore/Kerala/Tirupathi ?

Of course, MNS’ stance is not at all good, but why don’t we concentrate on the hazards of migration ? why are we ignoring that Mumbai is one of the Least secure, Dirtiest, Polluted financial capitals in the world ?

Who knows Mumbai ?

Mumbai belongs to India first then Maharashtra. When people call Mumbai cosmopolitan, why do they does not have to know that MUMBAI IS THE ONLY PLACE AND MAHARASHTRA IS THE ONLY STATE IN INDIA for which we witnessed a blood-bath in independent and republic India.

Just to remind, 60 people lost lives in protests for Mumbai to be included in Maharashtra. Thousands came on the streets to save Mumbai from becoming a union territory like Delhi. Which other state/city can boast of a similar example ? Maharashtra is connected to Mumbai through hearts and not only geography. It is the Maharashtrian face of Mumbai which has made it such a liberal city to stay in.

Migration blues : Blasts in Assam

Politicians/ruling party has allowed more than a million Bangladeshi migrants to caste vote in Assam, Tripura and other North-east states, which has turned a nightmare. Prima facie evidences say that these migrants alongwith their Pakistani accomplice have carried out blasts so easily in Assam.

Vote-bank politics desires many more Hindi-speaking people in Maharashtra, helping politicians from UP/Bihar to enter the state and may be rule it in future.

Myths pointing to declining culture in Maharashtra :

1. People knowing Marathi speak in Hindi with each other

è I feel sorry for such misinterpretation. It is their courtesy that they converse in Hindi so that the crowd (Maharashtra’s Cosmo crowd) around them understands their conversation and actively participate.

2. No one cares for Marathi, a regional language

è Marathi language and culture has never ever been confined to boundaries and regions. Marathis are still the most intellectual community in India, most number of daily newspaper readers alongwith greatest and largest collections of literature in the language.

è Marathi saahitya sammelan will be hosted in San Francisco, USA this year. This is to mark the celebration of more than 1000 Marathi saahitya communities outside India.

è Marathi people’s generosity has been misunderstood to be their weakness, which is not so. You were, are and will be happily able to stay in Maharashtra without knowing Marathi.

One culture of humanity and love :

We have never forced anyone to speak in Marathi, Maharashtra has always loved its guests and people coming for jobs/money. We have never referred to people as ‘outsiders’ ….. We always say ‘navin aalet’ (they are new to our place)

MNS does not represent Maharashtra !

But we want jobs for our Marathi brothers, we want peace for all of us. We want facilities for everyone. We are burdened with ever increasing migration and population.

Stop and start changing :

1. Jobs to locals a must ! Offer those jobs to outsiders only if they have been rejected.

2. Can we have something similar to passport ? So we can check person’s intentions when he/she enters the state. No-risk policy.

3. Let’s tell industrialists/builders : “If you want cheap labor, go to cheap places and recruit from there and bring them here on your responsibility only”.

4. Ask employers to provide for their employees’ stay and food till they are in ‘migrating’ stage.

5. Let’s put a full stop on Mumbai/Pune/Nagpur and other big cities in our state. Enough of population, enough of problems !

6. We need to take measures to stop migration towards Metros overall. Let’s try to build good facilities and structures in villages only and encourage youths to stay native.

7. Let’s stop trusting such media blindly, let’s put a control on our emotions. Protests/Agitations should be controlled and well-directed.

8. Someone’s killing/encounter in such conditions needs to be investigated deeply. People take advantage of political/regional/communal situations to promote their selfish causes.

9. Politics and media can take rest till then !

Deep down in Indian hearts :

Our nation has always pampered ‘the poor’, ‘the affected’, ‘the backwards’ …… Sadly, criteria and methods used to classify them have been age-old.

Supposedly poor people/regions/states can boast of their poverty or backwardness (ignoring causes they themselves are responsible for). Rich entities cannot claim so.

Being well-off and rich is a crime here; you can’t say you’re a Brahmin, you can’t boast of your successes/achievements.

Do we overtly care for the ‘poor’ ? Have we been able to improve their condition using these techniques ?

We claim that we are still a poor nation, that makes successful people in our country feel separated but we don’t care for them.

We won’t care when migrants from UP/Bihar (even people from Bangladesh and Pakistan are so similar that you cannot recognize or differentiate) play gang-wars, cause bomb-blasts and kill down thousands of people in Mumbai/Maharashtra. Maharashtra is always on terror-hit list. Our security has to be always vigilant and on their feet, even in smaller towns like Malegaon/Jalna/Latur.

And when there’s talk of controlling this insurgency (yeah, that’s the right word) from outside, people start blame games.

Maharashtra loses its people in mishaps/riots every day and you call the police partial and over-reacting when they gun down a youth spreading terror in Mumbai’s BEST bus with gun in his hand.

A person can say proudly if he’s a beggar, belongs to lower caste, is poor (irrespective of his own commissions) but rich successful people cant be happy with their achievements (even if he happens to have earned it)

The problem, the issue, the pain-pin has been politically used and misused too.

In our Great nation, it’s a problem to be well-off. Your richness is misunderstood generally to be your naïve superiority over the affected and your being educated is considered your plain luck, your talent, your intellect is a gift to you and nothing else.

That’s just not fair with the better and successful citizens !

Wait before you criticize the society and the culture, there’s another face to it …… even the educated/talented/well-off people out here want to stay quite and inert. They wanna discuss US elections while enjoying holiday on poll-day. They feel Visa to Massachusetts is more important than miscreants entering Mumbai. They always curse the government while driving their luxurious cars on Indian roads. They think it would diminish their pride if they fight over local issues. They have inverters at their homes, load-shedding does not affect them. They have ACs at home and workplaces, depreciating number of trees are too humble to bother them. They buy mineral water, water supply problems appear tiny to them. They visit Government hospitals or schools only at the time of some felicitation or inauguration, pathetic management at such public places is something to be heard in the news and to find an option to switch the channel on TV or turn the page in the newspaper, only poor are meant to caste their votes coz they have so much time to stand in a queue (in fact they have the guts to stand behind a labor or a beggar or a poor person). Yeah, we are not America, we are ashamed of our face, we feel insulted if we have to stand in a queue behind someone, we are ignorant of native problems. We are still a less confident nation, not proud of our existence (of course except those two golden days in a year).

We love the poor so much that we wanna see them poor for their lifetime, we wanna let the under-developed part of the country as it is, our metros are dirtiest in the world and our most developed state is the most insecure too.

That’s India, a nation of beggars and snakes !