Ban regional and caste politics
February 14th 2008 10:02
Today India faces a great separatist and regional challenge one which threatens to destroy the fabric of India itself. All leaders who talk caste and regionalism, even if they are leaders of national stature should be sent to jail and all regional and caste based parties banned by the election commission if India is to survive as a country.
Hari haters and Bihar Baiters, call them what you will for the Mumbai Madness is only growing in size and proportion. What began as a move to gain political space in the state of Maharashtra has resulted in making not only North Indians feel unsafe in their own country but has divided Indians again after 1984 and 1992 on the lines of caste, creed and colour. A shameful state of affairs indeed. It all began when the Samajwadi Party tried to organize a rally with the help of Abu Azmi a local Muslim leader. But then Azmi hails from Azamgarh as does every Azmi, which is a district of North India. Seeing this as a threat to the established Maharashtrian influence in the state of Maharashtra, local leader Raj Thackeray reacted with his Maharathi formula. But Raj Thackeray has raised very valid questions. He has brought to the fore a burning issue. Thackeray has pointed out that in every part of India there are lobbies which favour persons from their own state, which encourage and foment regionalism. A Bengali politician lobbies shamelessly for a Bengali sportsman to get him a berth in a national team, Biharis and UPites promote their own people outside the state and South Indians promote their own persons outside the state. This regionalism threatens national integration. It threatens the fabric of the Indian Union and it amounts to nothing less than waging war against the Union of India.
This kind of regionalism exists because Indians lack a sense of identity as Indians. They only become Indians when they are outside their own country and in foreign soil. Then even Pakistanis and Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis and Indians are long lost brothers and will do anything for each other as they are from the same region. But here in their motherland they enjoy stabbing the mother in the womb with their petty parochialism.
Such activity is not only detrimental to national security and the economy of the county as a whole but will only contribute to further destabilization. Over 10,000 people have already fled Maharashtra for the northern states. They have fled in fear of their lives. This reminds one of the Riots in 1992-93 when thousands of Muslims were forced to flee Mumbai. Then Hindus did not speak up in defence of their Muslim brethren but today when both Hindus and Muslims are being targeted merely because they are from Uttar Pradesh then suddenly parties like the Shiv Sena and the MSN have lost favour with the majority community.
The underlying moral in all this is that it is high time the voters of UP reject all political parties that speak regionalism. Reject all politicians that try to promote one case or creed against another and look at the own state. Why are they homeless and hated today? Because Uttar Pradesh does not produce any services or business or jobs today. So its children have to pull rickshaws in other states and be underpaid, exploited and maligned. Let us for the sake of the thousands rendered homeless resolve today to bring to power a party in UP and in the country which only thinks of India as one entity and all Indian states as equal. In fact a step in the right direction would be for the Election Commission to only recognize three parties in India. To not permit, either, any regional party to contest elections and to not permit any person having been a member of a regional party or his spouse or next of kin to contest elections as an independent candidate either. By regional party I mean any party that stands for issues that seek to divide Indians and separate Indians from Indians.
Hari haters and Bihar Baiters, call them what you will for the Mumbai Madness is only growing in size and proportion. What began as a move to gain political space in the state of Maharashtra has resulted in making not only North Indians feel unsafe in their own country but has divided Indians again after 1984 and 1992 on the lines of caste, creed and colour. A shameful state of affairs indeed. It all began when the Samajwadi Party tried to organize a rally with the help of Abu Azmi a local Muslim leader. But then Azmi hails from Azamgarh as does every Azmi, which is a district of North India. Seeing this as a threat to the established Maharashtrian influence in the state of Maharashtra, local leader Raj Thackeray reacted with his Maharathi formula. But Raj Thackeray has raised very valid questions. He has brought to the fore a burning issue. Thackeray has pointed out that in every part of India there are lobbies which favour persons from their own state, which encourage and foment regionalism. A Bengali politician lobbies shamelessly for a Bengali sportsman to get him a berth in a national team, Biharis and UPites promote their own people outside the state and South Indians promote their own persons outside the state. This regionalism threatens national integration. It threatens the fabric of the Indian Union and it amounts to nothing less than waging war against the Union of India.
The underlying moral in all this is that it is high time the voters of UP reject all political parties that speak regionalism. Reject all politicians that try to promote one case or creed against another and look at the own state. Why are they homeless and hated today? Because Uttar Pradesh does not produce any services or business or jobs today. So its children have to pull rickshaws in other states and be underpaid, exploited and maligned. Let us for the sake of the thousands rendered homeless resolve today to bring to power a party in UP and in the country which only thinks of India as one entity and all Indian states as equal. In fact a step in the right direction would be for the Election Commission to only recognize three parties in India. To not permit, either, any regional party to contest elections and to not permit any person having been a member of a regional party or his spouse or next of kin to contest elections as an independent candidate either. By regional party I mean any party that stands for issues that seek to divide Indians and separate Indians from Indians.
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