Carry on Mr Thackeray!

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray’s declaration that he and his party would now take up the Marathi issue more stridently, which essentially means the hate campaign against the north Indians would continue unabated, should surprise none. After all, it paid rich dividend in the just concluded Assembly election in which his party won 13 seats! And he should be a worried man, readying for the big challenge confronting him: Migrants from UP and Bihar constitute half the population of Mumbai as per a recent BMC survey, as he pointed out. But that is not the only justification. As a politician he has every right to continue with his sectarian politics. Look at the main national opposition outfit, the BJP. It may moderate its Hindutva policies to please the allies at times but it essentially remains and espouses the cause of one particular religious community, the Hindus. Same is true of the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Rashtriya Janata Party, the DMK and many other political outfits which champion the cause of one or more caste groups. This parochial politics may have promoted divisive tendencies but the fact that it continues to pay good electoral returns clearly means that it is doing something good for the people. And that leads us to an issue of greater importance: our development plans are skewed. Why else would people from UP and Bihar crowd Mumbai in such large numbers? Why employment opportunities are not created uniformly across the country? Why some sections of the society continue to lag in terms of education and feel they are sons and daughters of lesser gods? In fact, Raj Thackeray’s policy of hate is symptom of the flaw in our policies and plans. And so long as we don’t take corrective measures, Thackerays would continue to flourish and practice politics of hate. To that extent, Raj Thackeray serves a great purpose by constantly reminding us of our shortcomings and the need for course correction.