Click to play videoA man from Uttar Pradesh was lynched on a train in Khopoli, just outside Mumbai on Tuesday. A Patna boy brandished a gun in public and took a bus conductor hostage and injured another commuter before being gunned down by Mumbai Police on Monday. Meanwhile, in Delhi politicians have been playing the blame game on Mumbai's latest brand of regional chauvinism.
Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil has said that an attempt was on to create strife in the state. He also reiterated that the government was doing everything necessary to ensure peace.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which has been running an anti-North Indian campaign in the state, has washed its hands off the lynching of the youth from UP by saying that its men have been wrongly detained and questioned by the police.
Union Home Minister and a native of the state, Shivraj Patil in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN said that the situation is not all that bad and can be brought under control.
Could the civil society then, have been a little more proactive to what has been happening in Mumbai? Some of metropolis’ prominent citizens expressed their views to CNN-IBN.
Adman Prahlad Kakkar said, "There is no body to look after the genuine interests of the Mumbaikar. Only Raj Thackeray seems to have articulated it." So while Thackeray has hijacked an issue, how real are the fears that helped the average Maharashtrian to latch on to the bandwagon?
Writer Shobha De in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN had said that the reason that MNS chief is succeeding to the extent he is, is because he may have tapped into something that is very real in the minds of the average Maharashtrian, some of whom may articulate it, some may not.
Who then is to be blamed for it?
The debate on the CNN-IBN show Face The Nation on Wednesday was: Is Maharashtra civil society scared of speaking against Raj Thackeray?
The panelists included noted Marathi poet Dilip Chitre, Shiv Sena MP to Rajya Sabha Bharatkumar Raut and film-maker activist Mahesh Bhatt. The discussion was moderated by Bhupendra Chaubey.
Bhupendra Chaubey began by asking Dilip Chitre if this was the Maharashtra on the lines of what great leaders like BR Ambedkar or Shahuji Maharaj had envisioned.
Chitre had a vehement denial for an answer. "What we are looking at today is a few goondas helped by an acquiescent state government," said Chitre while accusing the state's Home Minister RR Patil of shielding the criminals.
"What you see in Maharashtra is that the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) and the Congress are strange bedfellows. Both of them are sleeping with the enemy," accused Chitre.
Mahesh Bhatt agreed that the city of dreams was having one hell of a nightmare of late. But Bhatt denied that the likes of him were silent on the issue of MNS versus North Indians. "I personally locked horns with the MNS on the issue of signboards with the shopkeepers in Mumbai."
Bhatt said that he did not deny that the elite were not vociferous and were turning a Nelson's eye to a glaring problem.
"When you are in Mumbai, you do not want to annoy lumpen elements because they have the power to strike and get away," said Bhatt. He also blamed the state for the delayed response.
The haves have always looked away from the problems of the have-nots, Bhatt pointed out and added, "There is no denying that the Shiv Sena or the MNS have brought on to the centre stage the concerns of the local Maharashtrians and they need to be looked into without flinching."
So was Raj Thackeray raising a genuine issue in an incorrect way? Was not the whole issue a threat to the federal structure of India?
Bharat Raut demanded that the Shiv Sena be not clubbed with or mistaken for what Raj Thackeray's MNS was doing. But Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray has said that politicians from the north should not make irresponsible statements, but shied away from saying that what has been enacted on the streets of Mumbai is also wrong.
Bharat Raut said that Mumbai is not unsafe. He said, "I feel sorry that a person is killed but let the police investigation take its own course."
While police may investigate and politicians may vacillate, is there a fear psychosis in the minds of North Indians in the streets of Mumbai? Is there no way to guarantee their safety?
Dilip Chitre said, "It is a matter of shame for all Maharashtrians, at least it is a matter of shame and anguish for me."
"I hold the flag of Maharashtra, not of Shiv Sena or the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, but the flag held by (saints like) Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram. A parallel movement is today going on, a very peaceful agitation against Dow Chemicals by the Warkaris (followers of the saint movement) whose only slogan for the last 700 years has been "Pundalika Varada Hari Vitthala! Dnyandeo Tukaram!" and that slogan has survived all political slogans of Maharashtra," recounted Chitre who was clearly upset with the violence in the streets of Mumbai.
So do the Shiv Sena and the MNS, both of whom claim to be appropriating the legacy of the truly great and secular leader in history- Shivaji Maharaj- need to take a look at what they stand for?
Is Mumbai learning to live with the lumpen elements or is the civil society there still active and toeing the legacy of the saint movement?
Mahesh Bhatt said, "I would not be alarmed and say that doomsday is around the corner. It is a painful phase that we are going through. I have been brought up in this city, in the Shivaji Park locality which has the largest Maharashtrian population. I have inhaled the secular creed on which each one of them truly build his life. But elections are round the corner and there is the unaddressed issue of the Maharashtrian local man which Raj Thackeray and the Shiv Sena have rightly brought to the centrestage. That is why even the ruling class is timid in taking them on. But I think what Dilip is saying is that what you need is a cultural renaissance, you need to bring Tukaram into the centrestage."
So have the Shiv Sena and the MNS not distorted the cultural values of the Bhakti movement or the secular values of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj?
Bharat Raut pointed out that Shiv Sena has always been a nationalist party. It needs no one to teach it the values. Raut pointed out the many festivals of different religions and communities that the city of Mumbai has been celebrating peacefully. He maintained that the social fabric of the city was totally intact and social celebrations too were done in a harmonious manner.
Dilip Chitre said that history was repeating itself and the Shiv Sena and MNS were fighting for the same section of the pie, just like Chhatrapati Shivaji's sons fought for the throne.
The moderator rounded off the debate by saying that the political parties going soft on the issue of the MNS workers against the North Indians should strengthen their positions to tackle the problem. The issue should be looked at as a political problem and not just a simple law and order situation.
So what is the future of the great city of dreams, in light of what has been happening in the last fortnight? Clearly, the Maharashtrian civil society has to do a lot more if it has to do a lot more if it has to express itself diligently and intelligently against Raj Thackeray.
Final web/SMS poll result:
Yes: 61 per cent
No: 39 per cent
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