Tired of communal politics & mudslinging in Maharashtra?
Tired of debating endlessly on communal tension in Mumbai?
Have you started religiously hating someone because of him being a localite or vice versa?
Why do you think this is happening?
Around a week back, I was chilling in my balcony, sipping delicious masala chai, enjoying the 3 am breeze, before being rudely interrupted from my ‘half awake’ state by one of my roomies.
“I hate all of this communal bullshit in Mumbai” he proclaimed.
I turned to find P, M & Patty engaged in a rather heated conversation involving Mumbai’s political scenario, complete with facts & figures thrown around, with swearing loud enough to make my rather docile gujju neighbors raise an alarm. Having a sizable number of Maharastrian & ‘non-Maharastrian’ friends, I’d been through this situation so many times! A wave of déjà vu hit me as I sat there silently thinking about all the hate & paranoia encompassing us.
As I sat there listening to P joking about declaring Mumbai as an independent country, my mind raced back in time. It brought back innumerable questions put forth to me by my Marathi friends. I’ve listed down a few which actually seemed justified to me.
- How does a localite, with a family to feed, compete with low cost laborers from other states?
- Mumbai is bursting at its seams! We’re at each others faces! What do we do?
- Why don’t we get as many opportunities?
To make it very very simple, locals are unhappy. Why? Now that is `the` issue we need to address!
I see every minute and not-so-minute issue been taken up and blasted way out of proportion everyday by the media.
I see politicians with magnetic personalities give inflammatory speeches which drive people into a violent frenzy!!
Why glorify or hate people who misuse civil unrest?
Instead, why not address the core issue.
Till date, I have only seen hefty accusations & anger-invoking insults being flayed.
I hope this post does not invoke similar responses here. Rather, I would like to open up this forum so that people can talk about what’s bothering the ‘Marathi Manus’ and probably come up with some useable and feasible solutions for the same.
Jai Hind: Proud to be an Indian 
I completely agree Rahul. Either of the Thackeray’s have never tried making an effort to pacify the problems of their communities.they have just used an easy approach of violence.they should have tried and empower people with the skills which would make sure they rise above others and compete not only locally,but also globally.but as is the case with Indian politicians,its always about vote-bank rather than an inspiration for progress and peace.
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The problem lies with the fact that Mumbai has been glorified over the years as a ‘City where dreams come true’. There are ample of opportunities related to work and education in other cities as well. However no one talks about them. Also the government has to make more actions in making other cities equally important. Then may be Mumbai will not attract so many people.
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Mumbai/Bombay never really belonged to anyone..9except perhaps the portuguese princess catharine braganza who got it as dowry from prince charles 2. Since dowry was no more recognized as a legal transaction and both the british and portuguese fled the country it has been coveted by both governments of gujarat and maharashtra. It was after much politics that it came under the jurisdiction of maharashtra. Since then insecure fringe leaders have been conducting systematic campaigns, it was tamilians first gujaratis at some point of time, then muslims and now north indians. this will continue since the ordinary mumbaikar has too much to deal with anyways and cdnt care less if there was an odd holiday on account of rioting. i cd go on writing but since this is only a comment to the above article i will offer some simple solutions to the problem
1. Collect dues for water and electricity and stop theft!
people who make a living by stealing water and electricty need to be the first to be chased out of mumbai
2. enforce builders to stick to regulations wrt open spaces.
there are strict regulations for builders in place , not much is followed. lack of accomodation will automatically take care of the people control problem.
3. Do away with all the free services
ticketless train travellers, bus travellers, free sleeping accomodation on the pavements
people literally stay in nariman point w/o spending much while top company officials canot even afford housing there.
4. charge a road tax to all private vehicle owners and ban commercial vehicles from the high traffic areas of the city
Most modern cities encourage mass transport for the ordinary man, in india we seem to be encouraging low cost private transport, who the hell is gonna pay for the roads?
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Hello Guys,
I think the reason behind this the problem of outsourcing, which is not only seen international but also within our country India.
Its a very true and obviously strong point that Mumbai or even anyother state doesnot belong to anyone individual or no one can rule over it, but thinking practically I feel that the people belonging to the same state are not getting jobs or are not able to earn their daily bread this also lead to problem. In this case what all the people staying their and suffering from this proble will do??
Its not that I totally support this point, or even I know how the people of Bihar where bitten. I know what harassment they have face, but the point that has been brought up is not wrong the only thing is the way they expressed it is wrong.
All these reasons lead to this tension, all over.
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Hi everyone,
I am not able to elicit out whether who is supporting what?? Most of the views of people above depict a neutral stand.. nice way actually but in my case I would like to aver strongly that I am against ‘those people’ who believe mumbai is ‘theirs’ and treat others as if they are not outsiders but rather outcasteds…
Tell me one city or town (nt only in India but anywhere in world) which is made up of people of only one caste/creed/religion/language!! (may be you would say Vatican City but that would i say is exceptional)
What i want to say is its not just mumbai but every place which has a native population and a migrant population, be it Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore or be it Tier 2&3 cities/towns like Nagpur, Indore, Surat, Lucknow, Vishakhapatnam (and ofcourse How wud i miss my very own BHILAI)… Ya, i accept that the problem of immigration may be well here the maximum as compared to others but that doesnt mean we can banish people from coming in or moreover no one gives anyone rights to oust the people already living there.
Those people, whether Tamils, Gujjus, Sindhis ar northies are also very much part of Mumbai as the Maharashtrians. Boss, how would there have been Udipis providing such yummy Upmas and Idlis or just imagine a Mumbai without Dabeli and Franky if Gujjus werent there and how can any non-vegetarian even think of mumbai without Baghdadi or Naaz.. ‘Those’ people say that they are taking ‘their’ jobs, tell me man, would you run the taxis and autos if these so called ‘outsiders’are thrown away no offences to them, esp the U.P. people, i am not being derogatory rather trying to be practical).
Basically, its just a phenomenon, which is being unneccessarily highlighted as a problem. Its very common that people get attracted to the glitz and gliteratti and come down in search of easy money to cities (esp and in this case, Mumbai). So, in my opinion, instead of gribbing about migration and all, ‘those’ people should rather try to reap in the underlying benefits of this ‘phenomenon’ at the same time try to solve the hassels that obviously accompany it. Gautam has mentioned some very good points on which i can atmost add the same age old pts like stop corruption, let the benefits reach to grassroot level etc.
I am sure discussion could go on infinately esp. when ‘those’ people instead of understanding the basic thing would retaliate back as if they have been brainwashed by those filthy politicians who have a habit of using such stupid manoeuvres, but still i would just like to remind ‘those’ people, that its AMCHI MUMBAI, not MAZZA MUMBAI !!!!
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kasa kaay mndalee…
arre tum log to ekdum garam ho gayela hai.mumbai abhi bhi jhakaas hai,yaar.ok. lets just consider all the evil this metro has gone thru.but its the people have stod by each other. only exception was 26/11. lets all pldge tht we dont give one more chance to such thing again.all we have to do is talk o each other even on move.
strike a smile and talk.share this wonderful city. tell me,how many times have we stopped by a signal and complimented a traffic cop? he too is in need of a pat on a back.
spread goodness among people.offer a cuppa tea to safaiwala,taxiwalla,newspaperwalla so on and so forth.
see the difference.
lets take it easy folks! breathe easy and keep smile pasted awhilemore.
sure, things will be good sooner yhan later.
one more thing, lets be more respectful to indian armed forces. they have been amazing guys all these 63 years than any of us. politicians please excluded and excused.
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I think I know the real answer which simply is – (Majority of) Marathis will support Thackeray’s and (majority of) Non-marathis will oppose them.
If this was about kolkata, (majority of bengalis) will support it and (majority of) non-bengalis will oppose it, and so on.
The answer is that simple- its all in your identity! No matter how hard and how logical non-marathis try to sound, Jai Hind Jai Maharashtra!
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this is highly hipocratical. Everybody know that politicians are just interested in their ‘DUKANDARI’, nobody is interested in Marathi Manus or Mumbai etc. its all Power game. Now everything is driven by market forces, you got to perform or perish. Thakreys are pakka shannas, they have nothing to do with the great Shivaji Maharaj, who took people of all castes communities, religions and fought the war against the Mughals. The Thakreys operned a Shop at Matoshri to tap the sentimental attachments of Marathi manoos towards Shivaji Maharaj and made huge properties and political highrarchi, fools will notr wake up
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