MNS and narrow-minded politics.

I saw the news. Thousands of people leaving Maharashtra state out of fear. They were afraid of MNS goons. Hindi news bulletins said Manse attacks innocent people. Manse is a word coined by MNS by taking first letters Ma Na Se from Maharashtra Navanirman Sena. But it has caught up like Dil se(Hindi film). Man se (from mind) is obviously two Hindi words. In Marathi it should have been Mana te ( or Mana til, Mana che I am not sure – My Marathi knowledge is limited to Amchi Maathi Amchi Manas & Amchi Mumbai ). Perhaps that Hindi word is not a deterrent in attacking Hindi speaking people for MNS. Any way they are doing it Man se.

Earlier when Uncle Thackeray’s goons attacked South Indians it was a Mahmood joke for whole of North India. My uncles dropped the ‘-an’s from their names. So Gopinathan became Gopinath and Ramanathan became Ramnath. All subrahmanyans and Sitaramans also dropped their ‘–an’s temporarily and saved their lives. In those days Tumcha naav Kaay ahey ? (Whats your name? ) was a feared question. No media, no political support – people suffered silently. Soon the congress party partnered with the Sena. Then later Sena joined Hindutua bandwagon. Everything was forgotten. Now history repeats.

It is surprising the Mah.Govt . did not arrest the MNS leader for so long. It is a clear sign that the main stream parties are looking for a tie up with him later. We should understand that these political leaders are building fortresses & palaces on the tears of poor innocent people. If every state starts like this then India will be no more. There should be stern laws to thwart this kind of animosities. But who will bring such laws, our politicians?

It is highly hypocritical that each state spends crores of rupees for tourism promotion but seldom have they cared about the outsiders who come to the state. All the buses in the state even in big cities ply with board names in local language. My home state Kerala, the so called literate state, is no exception. There is not even a bus number for buses in Trivandrum & Kochi. People from other states find it so difficult to travel. I have seen it myself. There should be strict law that the name boards must be written in English also besides local language. If they disobey central assistance should be cut. On the contrary now the number plates are also changing to local language. We can’t be so naïve and narrow-minded. All right-thinking people should react to this trend.

People like Gokhale, Tilak, Vinoba Bhave, Baba Amte and now Medha patkar are great Maharashtrians who wiped the tears from people’s eyes. But what an irony Maharashtra also has Godses and Thackerays who generate tears in people’s eyes.

Tailpiece: TOI columnist Bachi Karkaria said she is going to change her name to Karkare (pun intended). If I am staying there I will change mine to valsankar. My favourite song then will be "Lagaala Layila Galu - Paani Ten Ten Galu" !