Random Thoughts

Raj Thackeray’s arrest

It would be anybody’s guess that the whole ‘sons of the soil’ saga in Mumbai is more a political stance than an emotional endeavour for the chieftain of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Raj Thackeray. The sad part of the story, however, is that the common man is more or less identifying himself with this politically inclined debate.

For Raj and his 18 month old political party, which is an offshoot of Bal Thackeray led Shivsena, the issue of migrants in Mumbai holds enormous potential to capture the sense and sensibility of the masses. And, he has done a wonderful job at that so far. A look at the national TV news channels on Tuesday 21 October 2008 confirms this.

It was the day when Raj was arrested by the Mumbai police under the charges of instigating his party workers to beat people from other states who had arrived in Mumbai to take railway recruitment examination on the preceding Sunday. His arrest and the subsequent agitation by his followers were telecast by all the leading English and regional language channels throughout the day. Whether or not people across the nation agree to his stand of favouring the sons of the soil, one thing is sure --- it would be hard to find a person in India who watches news channels and who still doesn’t know about Raj.

While this is a political stance fro Raj to snatch away a vote bank from his cousine Uddhav, the son of Bal Thackeray who heads Shivsena, the masses seem to have missed this simple point. A walk around the corner in a busy city area reveals that there are people who think Raj is more sensible and then there is another group which gets annoyed by such rowdism.

There should be no confusion that all this is a political drama. It doesn’t solve the intricate issues that crop up due to the migration of excess workforce in a financially well-to-do part of a country.

posted by Ranjit @ 10/21/2008 11:00:00 pm