This saga started when Mr. Raj Thakeray leader of a relatively new born party Maharashtriya Navnirmaan Sena(or MNS) questioned Mr. Amitabh Bachchan’s loyality towards Maharashtra, the state which gave him his fame. Apparently Mr. Bachchan had gifted Barbanki, a district in UP, with an all girls school (and he named the school after his new daughter-in-law, Aishwarya Rai).
Bihar produces maximum number of engineers, IAS and IPS officers every year, but the irony is they do not have a single education institution that they can really boast of. As a result every student from Bihar leave his state and go to other states to pursue their further education. The state machinery is in a bad shape, all thanks to the corrupted politicians who have sucked up people’s blood and the state’s reserves to their enjoyment for years together.
This issue is genuine and we must face it now or else it is too late to correct. Bihari population is blamed by us for over crowding the buses, paan stains on public wall, robbery in our neighbourhood and even rapes and murders in our cities (irrespective of whether they are involved in it or not)! Jokes like “ek bihari, sau bimari” has become very common. We all blame them for everything bad, then why to shy away from acknowledging it?
In the mean time Lalu Prasad Yadav has challenged to perform chatt puja in front of Bal Thakeray’s house(Now that sounds interesting!!!!).
This sparked off a movement in Maharashtra aimed against the migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh working in Maharashtra. Small time workers in factories, taxi drivers, small shop owners, who hailed Bihar and not Maharashtra, were beaten up by the MNS party workers in front of media, the entire nation witnessed the show live on their TV sets.
Thousands of migrant workers left Maharashtra within hours to avert violence. Police and the state government remained unanimated (like always) for many following days (like always). The entire nation cried foul (including Raj’s “dear” Uncle Mr. Bal Thakeray) but there was no one stopping MNS’s antics. The Government in power maintained a vapid expression.
There were apprehensions that whatever happened, it happen because an unpopular MNS needed a good publicity stunt to come in the limelight or may be they were simply trying to secure the marathi vote bank for the upcoming elections. Whichever the case may be, Mr. Thok-re (Oops! I meant Thakeray, I shapath.) did give the nation a genuine topic to think on. On day one I ignored this issue as a cheap political stunt, not really giving much of a thought over it. But in the past few days, I have been seeing this issue from a different angle, a different perspective and I shall not hesitate to agree that Biharis are a menace.
I have friends from Bihar, they tell me that there are virtually no rules and regulations in Bihar. What works there is Role-Baaji. One of my Bihari friend once told me people in Bihar unscrew the fans from the train’s ceilings and take them home once their journey is over. Also they make a “genuine” use of emergency chains in a train. Every passenger pulls it just right in front of his house (Why crowd the station when your house is on the way?). Now when a person is brought up in this environment, he gets accustomed to that way of life and might not like a change. Someone once remarked: It’s the change that human fear the most and not death.
And its these same habits of migrant workers which come along with them in their suitcases to the migrating city, disturbing the day's course of the place.
Another aspect that these migrant workers bring along with them is illegal business of human trade. A middle man brings a large chunk of illiterate workers from Bihar and sell them off to people who seek unskilled labours, let say like at construction sites. This was the only reason why, New Delhi CM Shiela Dixit issued an order for mandatory carrying of an i-card 24*7, earlier this year.
Who had ever thought that a part time cartoonist will ever reserve a permanent space in national dailies for his sheer popularity. I rest my case with the verdict: Raj is right, not in the way of solving this issue, but definitely his idea is right.
