Modisation of Mumbai -by Sanjeev Chouhan Wednesday, February 06, 2008 What is happening in Mumbai today is just an echo of what happened in Gujarat in the not too distant past.
Narendra Modi has shown the power hungry politicians the way to electoral success. Create insecurity in the majority group by blaming and hammering up the minority group and emerge as the sole leader, well wisher and protector of the majority. What happened in the aftermath of Godhra, in Gujrat, is being replayed in Mumbai by Mr. Raj Thackeray the latest practitioner of the "ModiSchool of politics". Indiscriminate killing of Muslims in Gujarat had created a deep fear psychosis in the mind of the majority Hindus. Playing upon this fear and insecurity he was successful in creating a permanent and a massive vote bank by projecting himself as the sole protector and the only leader to execute an agenda to benefit one while discriminating the other. Envying Mr. Modi's success, Mr. Thackeray is following on the same footsteps. Creating a sense of despair and insecurity in the minds of the Marathi community in Mumbai against the migrants from North India, he is creating his own vote bank of wholesale and everlasting voters. First Mumbai, then Maharashtra and finally India. Mayawati is playing a similar politics in UP, however, the originator of this style of politics was Bala Saheb Thackeray in the seventies and the eighties, but credit goes to Mr. Modi for honing it into a discipline and a successful strategy. Mumbai would not have been the affluent and vibrant metropolis it is today, without the contribution of the migrants from the other parts of the country. Had it not been for the Punjabis, the Marwaris, the Biharis and the purbiyas, Mumbai would have remained the fishing community that it was. The migrant nature of the city is what gives it the luster and sheen. It creates a kind of positive energy that marks immigrant nations like the US or Canada. Mumbai being the financial capital of India compels companies from all over the country to have their corporate offices here. Mumbai is also the hub of arts and entertainment industry. It is the city of dreams. Every one comes here to make money, whether by selling 'paani puris' at Juhu or by delivering lunch boxes to offices all over the city. Everyone in Mumbai is a Mumbaikar. The migrants are eager to learn and pick up the Marathi language while the local Marathis can be seen speaking Tamil or Bengali. The local Mumbaikar or the native Marathis have no problems with these migrants, only the kinds of Mr. Raj Thackeray do. After all 'yeh hai Bombay meri jaan'. http://content.msn.co.in/Contribute/News/UCStory5689.htm
