There was letter in DAWN on this
A distressed society
Kuldip Nayar (Oct 24) speaks of goonda raj in Mumbai by Raj Thakare who has started agitation against North Indian migrants (whose number runs into millions in the city).
I would like to ask him, who will end decades of goonda raj in Bihar which is the main source of trouble?
The politicians and bureaucrats running the government there refuse to provide infrastructure and security for industries to come to Bihar and to provide job opportunities to its youths. For decades it has been taken for granted that, in Bihar, lawlessness, extortion and caste killings will continue while Bihari millions will take refuge in the Maharashtra state for jobs.
With time and with numbers, UPians/Biharis in Maharashtra have become more aggressive and possessive of Maharashtra. When their vested interest in Mumbai seems threatened, Hindi-dominated Indian TV channels have adopted methods that would have put Gobbels to shame and are demonising Raj for token violence against Bihari students appearing for railway examinations.
Their incessant hate campaign has resulted in violent reactions in Bihar by students there in the name of ‘Bihari asmita’ (Bihari pride) asking for death for Raj Thakare and Bal Thakare for stopping their job opportunities in Maharashtra. ‘Asmita’ should be about making one’s own home beautiful, not infiltrating into someone else’s home.
Cities such as Dubai and Sharjah have sprung up in the mist of desert in a matter of three decades giving opportunities to millions of Indians. There is no reason why UP/Bihar cannot develop modern cities and opportunities like IT, BPO, TV industries.
They have land, water, and other resources besides they have talent, skills and hard-working labour.
They refuse to change because they want to keep mediaeval, agrarian and feudal order in tact.
The feudal lords have purposely kept law and order and infrastructure poor in their states. Their rulers and bureaucrats swindle developmental funds and launder their loot in states like Maharashtra while jobless millions migrate. In Mumbai they occupy open lands, roadsides, countrysides and hills to set up slums. This is nothing else but thieving.
The Indian Constitution gives right to settle anywhere but not right to rob, I suppose. Millions live and multiply in filth and squalor, and the state government gives them free houses, many of them in the name of slum redevelopment. This acts as an incentive for more Biharis to come to Mumbai but demoralises local police who cannot aspire for a house in their lifetime.
There is an evil plot by UPians/Biharis-dominated centre to exploit Maharashtra’s land, infrastructure and resources for the benefit of north Indians. The north Indian-dominated centre is now floating satanic schemes such as Special Economic Zones (SEZs), for speedy exploitation of Maharashtra, keeping their own states unchanged.
The IHRC should consider such organised migration as silent terrorism against Maharasthra and intervene. I wish Raj had adopted a non-violent method like stopping all trains going to UP/Bihar, until locals were given proper representation in the railway and other central government jobs and until UP/Bihari politicians understood the true meaning of democracy. He can still do so for the benefit of both, Maharashtrians and Biharis, and for the benefit of intellectuals like Kuldip Nayar who can then sleep undisturbed in their ivory towers.
A MAHARASHTRIAN
India