I went back to my history books to check what did Gandhi, Bose, Bhagat Singh and Balgangadhar Tilak have in common. I was startled to learn that it was getting ‘India’ its freedom. What if these great personalities had espoused different causes- Gandhi wanting freedom for Gujarat, Bose for Bengal, Bhagat Singh for Punjab and Tilak espousing the cause of freedom for Maharashtra? And back then it would not have been completely out of order as the idea of India as we know now was still nascent as East India Company slowly but surely took over the reins of princely states once the Mughals receded from the scene. What ever their (heroes of our freedom struggle) individual tenets and beliefs about freedom struggle, their aim was one and thank God for that.What is out of order however is our present day politicians, shamelessly playing the game of identity politics. Because now we are India, not a scatter of some princely states. And it has been more than six decades now that it has been that way. What I am referring to here is Raj Thackerey’s tirade against all the non-Marathis living in Mumbai/Maharashtra. Yes, the matter is not as fresh so as to elicit a write up now, but this comes after I happen to watch Raj being interviewed by Arnab Goswami on Times Now on 23rd September.
First things first. In his zeal to practice what he preaches, he was responding in Marathi to the questions put by Arnab in English. Raj, I am a Hindu, and a very proud one at that. I respect the fact that you are proud to be a ‘Marathi Manus’. I respect Marathi language, and I respect a zillion other languages that are spoken across the world. I am also cognizant of the fact that English today has eclipsed or is eclipsing our national language and other vernacular dialects, and honestly I can’t propose any solution to it. Because I feel, and India has already realized it, that English is indispensable if you want to communicate with the world. And communicate you must. However, what was surprising was that Raj was replying to the questions in Marathi and not even in Hindi. No Raj, I don’t approve of that, and I am sure so would a lot of other Indians who happen to watch your interview. Unless of course, you were incapable in answering in English. Oh come on, you are talking prime time (almost) national television here. I know you are espousing the cause of Marathi language; well kudos and all the best for that. But I, as an Indian, do not believe that answering in English to an interview in English on prime time national television would in any ways weaken any of my native languages. I, as an Indian, do firmly believe that none of India’s languages is that weak or feeble.
Raj, you might have a lovely cause at your hand, but am sorry to say that your methods have been grossly wrong. Beating up poor and helpless daily bread earners won’t help the cause of Marathi or Marathi manus. Depriving a poor family of their daily bread and making them go hungry for the day will not in any way make another Marathi manus better off. And it is out rightly deplorable, even if it did. What will help Marathi manus or a Gujarati bhai or a marwari seth is when at least 10% of our politicians did what they are supposed to do! What about thousands of Marathi manus, working in the USA, or Hyderabad and Bangalore for that matter? Would you beat them up and thrash them in order to make them leave those places and come back to Maharashtra? Would you Raj?
I appreciate the zeal and energy that you have as a politician. But don’t waste it on utterly disgraceful activities. Ask a thousand Marathi people randomly; who they are more proud of- Tilak or Raj? Keep the answers to yourself, because frankly, I have my own answers. And while you are at that it won’t be a bad idea for me to extend an invitation to the British to come back and rule over us once again. At least they brought us together!