I Am A
Mumbaikar
By Pamela Raghunath
09 May, 2003
From the days of targeting
South Indians for taking up job
opportunities meant for Mahara-shtrians in Mumbai during the 1960s,
the Shiv Sena's ire is now directed at people from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh
and Bangladesh.
The anger and annoyance of
the Sena is the result of the continuous influx of migrants from these
states who are now posing a problem of being a severe burden on Mumbai's
limited facilities for which others pay taxes and also for making the
city into an undignified huge dirty slum.
Sena chief Bal Thackeray's
son Uddhav and nephew Raj have both taken up the campaign of getting
rid of these 'unwanted guests' and are already charting out a plan to
legally evict encroachers on public land.
The latest Sena slogan is
"Mee Mumbaikar" or I am a Mumbaikar sending out a message
that all Marathi-speaking and other residents who love the metropolis
have a right to live here but the emphasis is that the influx must stop.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal
Corporation (BMC) that is dominated by Sena corporators will be used
to implement its rules more rigorously to demolish illegal structures
and evict encroachers on government-owned land, said Raj at a BMC meeting
today that was attended by senior civic and police officials.
"The new migrants are
even encroaching where mangroves abound, thus causing environmental
degradation," he said.
Raj has taken around 500
photographs of these illegal encroachments, especially of Bangladeshis,
around Mumbai in the last few days, says Shishir Shinde, Sena legislator,
and these include along areas along Bombay Port Trust, Sewri and Antop
Hill adjacent to the depots of oil companies thus posing a danger to
national security.
"We can identify Bangladeshis
since they cannot speak Hindi, not even Urdu," says Shinde.
As for jobs held by 'outsiders',
the message is to ensure that these gradually go to the 'sons of the
soil' and include self-employed occupation like driving taxis, autorickshaws,
running shops and reservation for locals in companies.
According to Raj Thackeray,
"Our Constitution allows free movement of citizens. But it also
says that you cannot go and become a nuisance for the original people
staying there. These people don't pay electricity bills, water tax or
rent and stay free. Why should the rest of us tax payers bear the brunt?"
Will the Sena's concern to
protect Maharashtrians and make Mumbai a modern, clean city on par with
other global cities work?
For the Congress which is
the main constituent in the state's
coalition government, "This is a just a political stunt of the
Sena
whenever elections approach and there is nothing serious about it,"
says Kripashankar Singh, minister of state for home (rural), who is
from U.P.
"If they are so concerned
about the influx of Bangladeshis, why did they not stop them when they
were in power.
"If they really want
to do something for Mumbai they should be more open hearted and get
more funds for the city's infrastrucutral
development like the way our former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh
did by asking the central government to provide Rs10 billion for the
city."
Another Congress leader,
Nirmala Samant Prahavalkar, a lawyer who heads the State Women's Commission,
feels "that whatever the Sena's stand may be, everyone who comes
to Mumbai is equal and can avail of the job opportunities. This is a
city of the survival of the fittest.
"As a Maharashtrian,
I believe all regional cultures and language
should be preserved with pride but that doesn't mean one can throw out
outsiders."