The assembly election result of Maharashtra is out and bang!!!!
MNS ( Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) wins 13 seats.
MNS has managed to hit the headlines of newspapers and TV channels and grab the attention of all sorts of media be it films, newspapers, television that it needs no introduction. The win shows that its acts did have an impact and has been able to influence people to believe in its ideology and way of working. I happen to read the interview of MNS chief Raj Thackeray in a news paper (Mumbai mirror of 25th Oct 09) and he makes a point that he is being misunderstood. He says “he is not against people from other states but he is against the politicisation”.
I personally did not like the way the issue of migrants was brought into limelight. Beating “taxi drivers” and labourers will not solve the problem. And so never accepted the ideology coined by MNS. But in another interview, I read one more point made by somebody and it made me think. The point was “People come to Mumbai from others states because they own states are not developed and instead of condemning acts of MNS why don’t they see the root cause and act to develop their own states”. I feel the point is right.
The recent incidents executed by the so called “Answer of India to Obama” Mayawati of building statues of her own and her mentor by spending crores of public money is a good example of insensitivity of our politicians. In case she was concerned enough about the people of her state, she would have used the money in development work of the state. Any money put in the development work will create new jobs, opportunities of work and people will not be forced to migrate. A million rupees spent on roads development lifts an estimated 123 people out of poverty (excerpt from Nandan Nilekani’s “Imagining India”, page no 255).
Had she done some real good work, people would have been more than happy in erecting her statues at every possible place. That’s what is written in the history. None of the greats of history forcefully erected their statues or named roads after them, it was the “janta” who gave them the honours.
Exploring and migrating to new places for opportunities and growth is very much an integral part of being human. It has been happening since ages and will keep on happening. That’s how it works. People coming to Mumbai from other states are more or less similar to people migrating from India to US, UK and other countries. In fact, many countries invite skilled migrants through special programs. Growth has always been and will always be result of “Collaborative efforts” and stopping people from coming to Mumbai also puts a brake on its growth.
But there’s also another side to it also: The percentage contribution of migrants to the growth of the city.
Most of the people migrating to Mumbai land up in the wide and dark unorganized labour section of the society. These people always find themselves falling short of access to the basic necessities of life like water and shelter and so end up in slums. Also there are people who exploit them at every possible opportunity in the name of providing access to official property and facilities unofficially. Thus nurturing the very deadly disease India is infected with, Corruption. There is definitely an increased demand of land, infrastructure but not so increased contribution to the government kitty (e.g TDS is not happening). I feel, many of the people coming to Mumbai are forced to migrate. It’s the question of “roji-roti”. They will be ready to bear the “beating” to make sure their children don’t sleep empty stomach. They would have always avoided migrating had there been enough opportunities of growth in their own states. So the single culprit behind the entire episode, which might get even more intensified, is lack of development.
Let’s hope our elected people in power who call themselves “Public servant” understand that we are in real need of their services as we are the ones who have made them what they are.
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