Target N Indians: Big bias or fitting reply?

While migrants from UP and Bihar continue to be targeted in the country's financial capital, in the national capital, the Delhi Lieutenant-Governor says North Indians, by their very nature, are lawless.

In Mumbai, the North Indians are being accused of taking away jobs, making the lives of locals tough and creating a chaos through their lawless behavior. And in Delhi, Delhi Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna says: "Generally in this region it is a matter of pride for people to violate the law."

Do these actions and statements suggest that north Indians are victims of prejudice and discrimination?

This was the question addressed on CNN-IBN's prime-time programme Face the Nation by a panel comprising former cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad, young Shiv Sena MP Rahul Narvekar and well-known sociologist Radhika Chopra. The show was moderated by Bhupendra Chaubey.

Chaubey began by citing the latest statement coming in from Raj Thackeray, the chief of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, who has been blamed for the current bout of turmoil in Mumbai. It was Raj Thackeray who had first kicked off the Maharashtiran-vs-outsider debate when he took on Amitabh Bachchan, questioning what the Big B has done for the welfare of Maharashtra.

The MNS chief had remained silent ever since on the face of strong criticism by his rivals and the media. But on Friday, he finally spoke out, alleging that he has been targeted by the political parties and the media.

In an article he wrote for local daily Maharashtra Times, Raj Thackeray has raised a few questions: "The Prime Minister asked the French Government to allow Sikh students to wear turbans in schools. Yet why he was not called a communal leader? Most political parties in Tamil Nadu have links with the LTTE which killed Rajiv Gandhi, yet why they are not called parochial?"

Targeting Amitabh Bachchan, Raj Thackeray says "Amitabh Bachchan calls himself 'Chhora Ganga kinarewala', yet media does not call him a 'regionalist'. Raj has not spared the communists in West Bengal as well. "The Communists in Bengal launched an agitation when Sourav Ganguly was dropped from the Indian cricket team, yet they are supposed to be liberal and secular," he pointed out.

"Why am I the only one targeted by the media and political parties when I talk of Maharashtra's interest?" the MSN chief asks.

But then why target the north Indians alone?

Kicking off the debate on Face the Nation, Chaubey points out that the north Indians are facing such a situation in the country when they are the largest linguistic group, when one in every three Parliamentarians hail from the so-called Hindi heartland and when the population of just two states - UP and Bihar - is greater than the combined population of all four south Indian states.

He then points to the irony that the victims of the latest controversy have themselves been blamed for a very long time for victimising non-Hindi-speaking people. "It is not uncommon for them to ridicule the language, culture and costumes of other linguistic groups, branding south Indians are Madrasis and people from the Northeast are Chinkis or Nepalis," Chaubey says.

And as group identities grow, the table has turned and north Indians at this point of time have become the victims.

Asked why is it difficult for the Hindi heartland people to get rid of the dadagiri image, Kirti Azad says he doesn't agree with the assumption that north Indians are hated or disliked outside the Hindi belt.

"I am a Bihari, but I studied all throughout in Delhi and nobody ever objected to me being in Delhi. I played for Delhi and I represented the country while playing for Delhi, but nobody raised a finger. The fact is, I maybe a Bihari, Maharashtrian, Gujarati or South Indian; but I am an Indian first. And that is what has to be kept in mind, rather than thinking in terms of regional identities," he stresses.

Azad also disagrees with the assumption that there is something wrong with the civil society in the Hindi heartland. "There is nothing wrong with the society. People from eastern UP and Bihar are not only all over India, you will find them across the world. You have Prime Ministers in Mauritius, you will find them in Surinam and various other places. They are very adventurous. They go there to earn their living and they want to have respect," he points out.

Asked why North Indians are no longer welcome in the city of Mumbai, Shiv Sena MP Rahul Narvekar says the Sena distinguishes between linguistic discrimination and the fact that a migrant population comes in and puts pressure on the city's infrastructure.

"Right from the inception, the Shiv Sena has been there for the cause of Marathi manush. We have no issues with respect to people coming into Mumbai. But we have an issue when because of the migrant population, the Marathi manush doesn't get his rights," he says.

Sociologist Radhika Chopra doesn't agree. "When Rahul Narvekar talks of pressure on infrastructure because of migrants, he is actually trying to point out towards a lack of urban infrastructure. But it eventually gets translated into a stereotyping," she points out.

Kirti Azad says if MNS is actually worried about the pressure on Mumbai's infrastructure, it should target the industries that are being put up there by the Ambanis or the Vijay Mallyas. "Why don't they do something to them? We are they hitting the poor below the belt," he asks.

Asked if he is trying to suggest that when a migrant comes to Mumbai, he should essentially adhere to the culture and ethos which exist in that city, Rahul Narvekar says when a migrant comes to a new place, he or she has to adapt to a certain culture.

"If one doesn't, he or she is always going to remain a migrant even if he or she decides to stay in that place. It is in the interest of both the local population as well as the migrants that they adapt to the culture of that place," he says.

Radhika Chopra, however, argues that these so-called ethos actually have no place in a cosmopolitan place like Mumbai.

"What are these ethos? On one hand you are trying to push Mumbai as a cosmopolitan city and on the other you are saying that there are the Hindi heartland people trying to take over the biggest industry like cinema. But, mind you, you are talking of Hindi cinema," she points out

Asked if the inability or unwillingness of the north Indian people to learn the language of the land exhibits a bullish or negative attitude leading to such problems, Radhika doesn't agree it's a negative attitude.

"I think migrants do make a lot of effort to become a part of at least the street culture or the working class culture of the cities to which they migrate. Primarily because they have to live there and interact with their clients, buyers and sellers of vegetables etc," she reasons.

Kirti Azad also trashes the allegations that people from UP are generally not civil or those from Bihar discourteous.

"This is absolutely ridiculous. Has there been any instance of a taxi driver or reddywallah creating a problem? There are so many IAS and IPS officers in Central Government and state governments who hail from UP and Bihar. What about them?"

Tripti Shakya, a popular Bhojpuri singer in UP who has had many performances outside UP as well, too disagrees with the suggestion that people from UP or Bihar are discourteous.

"Whenever I have performed in Bihar and UP, the people have loved me and they have given a very good response. And I have seen that the people in Bihar and UP love music and they respect musicians."

When she was pointed out that a woman is generally greeted by stares in UP or Bihar when she goes to a place for the first time, Tripti says that has never been the case with her. "I have been very fortunate regarding this thing. And I have always been greeted with love and respect wherever I have gone."

Asked about the latest turmoil in Mumbai, the Sena MP says the events that unfolded over the past three to four days were nothing but a gimmick played by two political parties to get some kind of publicity which that have been starving of for quite sometime now.

When he was pointed out that the Shiv Sena itself was indulging in similar kind of activities in the past and that Udhav Thackeray himself resorts to such outbursts against north Indians occasionally, Narvekar says: "When Shiv Sena has launched an agitation, it has always been for a cause and at the instance of a particular incident. The violence in the past three-four days was without any cause whatsoever. And one can very well make out that this has been done with the intent of getting some kind of publicity."

When it was pointed out to Radhika Chopra that the Bihari bhaiyya-vs-Chinki tussle is quite common on university campuses across the country nowadays, she says she doesn't think that shows the north Indians as a very highly discriminatory bunch of people.

"We Punjabis are generally condemned as very uncultured and without any roots at any place at all. But then making stereotypes and clichés are a part of out cultural life, that's how all of us categorize each other. The problem is when stereotypes become not only part of everyday interaction or jokes, but also pathological and therefore violent," she argues.

When she was asked if the politician-criminal nexus, which has almost become absolute in UP and Bihar, has any correlation with the sense of insecurity or violence that has almost become a part of civil society in these two states, Radhika says the problem actually lies somewhere else.

"I think that has a lot to do with the disappearance of governance, disappearance of education and the complete breakdown of a gradient society."

In a live poll on the key question of the debate, 57 per cent of those who voted agreed that North Indians are victims of a bias and they do face prejudice while 43 per cent felt otherwise.

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