BRING IT ON!!!

Hoping to take a break from the relentless bleak news of a crumbling world economy and the perceived impact on jobs like mine, I hop on to one of the few Diwali parties organized this year. No, I was not invited but somehow managed to get in. Hoo Hoo what do I find? Isn’t this grand, this surely is one heck of a party. I make myself comfortable with some drinks and start checking out some chicks wandering around. But wait, who are these people? Haven’t I seen them before? Oh yes, that is Raj Thakrey for sure, in a truly jovial mood and there sitting in a corner, I can make out, are Vilas Rao Deshmukh and RR Patil if I am not terribly sloshed. But who are these other people? They neither seem to be in the mood to party nor do they show a great deal of disinterest, I catch a glimpse of a badge each of these folks is wearing. It says “Marathi Manoos”. Hmmm…I don’t know whether it’s the effect of the liquor or not but I seem to get detached from the party and get lost deeply in my own thoughts.


Raj Thakrey seems to be the central figure of the party. Yes Raj, you have every reason to party, after all your political fortunes have turned 180 degrees in the past six months. You were a forgotten caricature before that, like the ones you think you can draw (Raj is supposed to be a cartoonist) and then the grand plan hit you. Yes you got it right; if your uncle could use this plan some four decades ago to come to the political limelight then you could try it out to get some attention too. After all there was no harm in trying, and you wouldn’t have lost out on anything considering that you were already a big zero. I must congratulate you on your meteoric turn around; you surely have talent and lots of it. What if, you end up challenging the very idea of India? What if, you usher in a surge of regionalistic terrorism that can and will, destroy the very country which some great men (including ones from Maharashtra) and millions of unknown Indians have built over the centuries? What if you have to ignite a fire that will lead to a civil war and hence result in the total annihilation of the mother land? This is but a very small price to pay for a few more minutes of media coverage and eventually a few additional seats in the assembly elections, right Mr. Thakrey? But you know what? Your dreams will remain what they are,”dreams” because for every Raj Thakery and his goons there are 100 nameless and faceless Indians like me scattered across the length and breadth of this country who will not allow you to defeat the idea of India.


You act as if you are greatly concerned about employment of the Marathi youth; look yourself in the mirror Mr.Thakrey, the only person for whose employment you are fighting for is yourself. Yes, you were politically unemployed all this while and you want to get an employment at any cost, even at the cost of hatred and violence against the poor and innocents who happen to be your own countrymen. Whose jobs had Pawan Mahto and Dharamdev taken away? They were poor migrants from another part of India and come to the so called “financial capital of India” (that’s right, not the financial capital of Maharashtra) in the hope of ensuring two square meals for their family. Why were these people killed? Who is going to answer for their killings? It has to be you, Mr Thakrey, because you have blood on your hands. And you may get you few extra seats in the assembly elections and a few more hours of television footage, but someday you will have to answer for their killings and will be brought to justice.


What kind of an image do you want to create of Mumabi? Isn’t it supposed to be India’s most cosmopolitan city, haven’t the non Maharashtrians had a huge role to play in building the city to what it is today? Thank god, you don’t have any cousins in any of the other metros of India like Bangalore or Kolkata or Chennai or Hyderabad, at least they have not surfaced till now. But if you become successful in your sinister designs in Maharashtra then it won’t take long for your dupes to surface in all these metros. And then, India will surely perish.


Have you ever thought of the consequences that your actions might have on the millions of Maharashtrians living in other parts of the country or outside the country for that matter? I bet you have, but that has not deterred you because essentially you are not interested in the interests of any other Marathi apart from your own. How many times have you visited Vidarbha, Mr.Thakrey? a place which has seen hundreds of farmer suicides in the last few years. What have you done to share their burden? Aren’t they Maharashtrians? Shouldn’t you be helping them out? But no, that will be tackling a real challenge and solving those problems will need the real skills of a leader, of which, you have none, but more importantly fighting for farmers in far off Vidarbha will not get you the media eye balls that you need. Instead you create an issue out of nothing and go hammer and tongs at projecting yourself as the greatest Marathi icon since Sivaji.


You are indeed very concerned about the survival of the Marathi language, that’s why your children studied in English medium convent schools and your son has taken up German instead of Marathi in college(if i have my facts correct). And I am sure that you are never going to send them outside the state or outside the country for higher education or employment. You take great pride in the wealth of Mumbai; yes you should be, after all, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and their likes are true blue Maharashtrian companies. Have you ever thought that if the westernized countries, whose businesses have helped make India the financial power that it is today, start to think on your lines, where will it leave us and you’re Mumbai? Shouldn’t all the foreign companies shut shop in India and return to their own countries? If you have lynched a few of your own countrymen trying to earn a living for themselves in your state, don’t you think that these western countries have all the right to lynch thousands of Indians for taking away their jobs?


Finally Mr Thakrey have you ever thought about the long term repercussions of your reign of terror? You may like to fool yourself trying to think that the rest of India will take this lying down, but your are wrong ,Raj. India will not take this lying down, there have been many like you in the history of this ancient civilization who have dared to challenge the idea of India and all they have managed to gather is public humiliation and ridicule. The same fate awaits you. Even your dreams of being the prince anoint of the great Maratha tribe will be unfulfilled, because for every goon that you hire there are n number of Marathis who are Indians first and Marathis later. And if I am wrong on this count and if most of Marathis are indeed swayed by your deceit, then… good riddance, then Maharashtra doesn’t deserve to be a part of India.


Suddenly my thoughts turn to RR Patil and Vilas Rao Deshmukh. They have done an excellent job of maintaining their reputation, the reputation associated with any congress government in this country. They are true representatives of a congress led government. Yes the same congress party, whose one and only forte is inaction. It’s always been a party which has shied away from carrying out its responsibilities; it’s always shied away from taking a stand on any issue. They are notoriously infamous for invariably letting a small spark build into a raging volcano owing to their utter inaction. Isn’t it the same party which first propped up Sheikh Abdullah in Kashmir and then later didn’t know what hit them? Isn’t it the same party which created the myth of Bhindranwale to counter the Akalis in Punjab? Isn’t it the same party which arranged for the Shilanyas in Ayodhya? Isn’t it the same party which overturned the supreme court judgment in the Shah Bano case? Yes, it is. Great show Mr.Deshmukh and Mr. Patil, you have played true to reputation. You have been utterly inactive and in efficient.


Especial kudos to Mr.Patil, you were spot on when you supported the murder of Rahul Raj by the Mumbai police. He was indeed an ominous threat to the country, how dare he shout slogans against Raj Thakrey? He looked every bit a terrorist on the verge of killing innocents and yes, he couldn’t have been captured alive even though he was armed only with a country made pistol and you had a whole bunch of your policemen trying to overpower him. But how does that matter? After all he was only a Bihari and this was Mumbai! Mr. Patil, you were spot on, while trying to justify the killing of Rahul Raj, anybody who took the law into their own hands would have to be taught a lesson as you had just taught to Rahul Raj and to his poor family members in Bihar, wonder why your government and your police never thinks of teaching any lesson to the MNS hooligans though. Is this a case of selective amnesia on your part or are these hooligans too educated to be taught anything or do I smell something fishy here? Won’t it be beneficial to you if the MNS emerges as a real threat to the Shiv Sena, your political nemesis? Yes it will, I get your game Mr. Patil. Mr. Deshmukh can’t be blamed for any inaction; after all he hardly ever gets time to look after things other than his son’s Bollywood career.


Then my thoughts wander to the “Marathi Manoos” and I can sense a feeling of discomfort in their midst. They don’t quite accept Raj as their representative and don’t quite approve of the ways of Raj but are somehow cowed down and timid about speaking their minds. They are fiercely proud of the heritage they inherit, a heritage few other states in India can match. Maharashtra has been a land of patriots like few others, it’s been the land of men like Tukaram and Tilak and Gokhale and Savarkar who helped build this country with their sweat and suddenly the “Marathi Manoos” find among themselves this divisive figure who claims to be an icon on the lines of these greats and yet who is doing exactly the opposite to what those great Maratha’s did. The “Marathi Manoos” is confused about how to deal with this new creature. Well, for the sake of India and for their own sake, they can’t afford to be confused. “Marathi Manoos”, don’t get silenced by Raj and his goons, you can’t let yourself be cowed down by his violence. It’s high time you raised your voice because if you don’t, then, the the rest of India will think that you have ceased to be Indians. Boycott him wherever he goes defeat him in every poll that he contests in. Since Raj has waged his war against India on your soil, it’s you, “Marathi Manoos”, who has to take the lead in defeating him.


After such a heavy dose of thinking, whatever intoxication I had, wore off and slowly I walked out of the party. As I exited the gate I saw a huge banner dangling at the entrance indicating the occasion for the party, it read “The Death of India”. So all these people were celebrating the death of India…Well, good luck to the people who were still inside, but India has not died for sure. It’s been critically wounded by those inside but it will survive and rise once again.
As I catch a taxi to return home I shout out the following lines at the top of my voice…
…No matter what you do break the unity of this country for your own petty political gains, not matter how hard you hit us with your regionalistic brand of terror, nameless and faceless Indians like me will take up the challenge. Even if you have the whole of Maharashtra behind you, we will not be cowed away from a fight. So Mr. Thakrey, throw whatever you can at India, throw all your might, we accept your challenge…BRING IT ON!

Disclaimer:-

• This blog is purely personal and has no affiliation whatsoever to any individual or organizations I am/was/will be associated
• The views expressed herein are purely based on my opinions and needn’t be factual. In short, they are opinions, not facts and must be appreciated/dismissed as such