Raj Thakare and Lalu Prasad Yadav

Last few days political atmosphere in India is hot over Raj Thakare and Marathi - Bihari fights. Well what is the real issue? Is there really an issue? And why are media and politicians across all parties are going after it?

I think this issue is limited to only Mumbai metropolitan area and may be some cities like Pune, Nagpur etc. This is not really touching any of the rural or semi-urban maharashtra.

There is a quite substantial amount of Bhayyas (UP-Bihari ppl) in Mumbai metropolitan area and number is growing in other Maharashtra cities. Hundreds, thousands of Bhayyas along with others enter Mumbai everyday in search of jobs. The poor UP-Bihari cheap labor becomes available especially for any unskilled manual labor jobs. As the number of immigrants grows the competition in labor class increases. The Bhayya immigrants are available at much cheaper rate than the natives and also ready to get exploited as they are trying to establish themselves. Mainly the natives in labor class suffer due to this severe competition. The overall standard of living of the labor class goes down and they become restless. I think thats the cause number 1.
Then there are social-cultural differences arising due to the immigration. E.g. the north Indians especially bhayyas by nature are more aggressive than south Indians and also not used to a good law and order as Maharashtra. They obviously try to exploit the law and order here and the crime rate goes up. (refernce - Mah Crime reports.) Again the natives feel growing bhayyas will dominate them socially/politically and make a Bihar of Mumbai. The Chhat puja is a good example, the huge Bhayya crowd at Mumbai beaches, loudspeakers and the samajwadi/congress politicians trying gain some mileage makes native feel very threatened. I think that’s the cause no 2.
The third reason is I think the some policies like in RRB ( Railway Recruitment board) where they are influenced by Bihari politicians which allow (1988 amendment) N.A. students to give exams in hindi and that too in maharshtra/Gujrat zone and not allowing marathi examiners to give the same exam in marathi and not in N.A. zone either. Obviously you will see most of the Railway employees are north Indians especially UP-Biharies. I think the union government historically is being more dominated by north Indian politicians. That’s the cause no 3.

I see these are the main causes of the problem and then there are politicians like Raj thakare and Lalu prasad Yadav-Abu Azami who are gaining political momentum. Let’s see where everybody's interest is laying -

MNS - Raj thakare - He is trying to establish himself. He has to find the issues like this and seems like almost ready to go to any extent. Now his party is new and whether he is really concerned about marathi ppl or just wants to get a political milage like any other politician is yet to be proved. But he is getting a grass root support and also from an educated class is to be noted. Again the above issues he is fighting for are valid issues and that’s why most of the Marathi ppl have a soft corner for him.

Samajwadi party - Abu azami /amar singh etc - They are trying to capitalize Muslim vote bank and now also the north Indian vote bank in Mumbai which has grown to almost 2.5 million . I think they have absolutely nothing to do with the welfare of bhayyas or their protection. The samajwadi party and its leaders like mulayam and amar singh will do anything just to protect their vote bank and they have proved it in the past. They would love the issues like this because its about Mumbai...thier new target and always a soft target for politicians....

Indian natonal Congress- I am always amazed to see this party's ability to gain political milage from absolutely anything.... e.g. Mharashtra state is politcally divded into BJP-Sena and congree-NCP. Congress-NCP has always been politically very strong in the state especially in rural areas and has fixed loyal voters. Sena has its foothold especially in cities and that too mumbai metropolitan area and konkan. Congress thinks that letting Raj thakrey gain support is going to weaken sena-BJP. Becuase MNS will obviously pull Marathi middle class urban voters who were sena-Bjp traditional votes... This divide will benefit them in log run, at least in next 3-4 elections. So they WANT Raj thakrey....... this is what the congress CM and his party thinks and they discuss this in private. So they will let Raj thakrey grow.

Lalu Prasad Yadav and Co - The same story. Nitish kumar ended the long lalu kingdom in Bihar and trying to work something positive. But lalu is furious. He wants his kingdom back, and he is shouting and screaming against Raj thakrey and Shiv sena as if he is the only Masiha of Bihar. Bihar - mostly undeveloped and illiterate doesn’t have the capability to think what has Lalu done in past 15 years? If they would have had thought about it they would not have let Lalu rule them for so many years. Anyways I think he gained a lot of milage thru Raj thakrey...

Finally our dear media - Till now I have not said anything about write who is right and who is wrong because its relative, from marathi point of view Raj is right and Bihari point of view he is not but I think the biggest culprit is media, more than any politician media is provoking people. I am really amazed to see what extent they can go. E.g. they have been constantly giving news about 2 bhayyas got killed in huge violence in maharshtra and north Indians in Maharashtra are very threatened etc. Now the fact was one of them got killed in a fight between two groups about a seat in a train (who happened to be UP guy) which has absolutely nothing to do with marathi-Bihari fight or MNS or anything and the other got killed because he opened fire in a public Bus. Also no north Indian was attacked except the RRB examiners and that too officially at only 2 places. But media is acting like entire Maharashtra is on fire. Why? Because 1. It about mumbai their soft target - also where most of their head quarters are and 2. They get a high TRP. for breaking news. The senior politician like sharad pawar was so frustrated at media that he even refuses to talk to them now, and still maharshtra CM takes no action on media because you know the answer by now.
The fact is Marathi ppl and Maharashtra state has been historically one of the most nationalist and loyal state than any other part of India and also one of the most hostile. E.g. mumbai.

Finally let’s talk about ppl - who is right and who is wrong - I think the immigrant - native is a global problem - US natives are also facing it and nobody can stop immigrants in a global economy. In India the developed states like Maharashtra, Karnataka etc are always going to face this problem from the undeveloped states like Bihar, UP. In the semi-federal system in India you cannot make a law to stop immigrants but you can defiantly make laws to control them and also make laws stronger to control the immigrant's behavior and also to control politicians the media. But for that there should be a political will, and I think 90% politicians don’t have it. Let’s talk about fundamental problem of Indian politics and people next time.