There is a “राष्ट्र” in “महाराष्ट्र”…
…but there is no मराठी in there.
This was the thrust of a�discussion I had with a group of Maharashtrian professionals earlier this month when the “Maharashtra saga” was just beginning to unfold. See some of the slides here (CAUTION:�800k download A Question of�Identity).
Then Anil Sharma-ji of Freedom Team alerted me to this article by Pratap Bhanu Mehta (”His freedoms and ours”, Feb 18) which I felt best captured my thoughts on the going-ons in “Aamchi Mumbai” (excerpts below; emphasis mine).
“…Thackeray deserves all the blame he is getting. But it is also time to be blunt and graceless about one disturbing fact. The response of the political class as a whole has been deeply disturbing in its own way along more dimensions than one.
…most prominent Maharashtra politicians have been at best very tepid, at worst downright equivocal, in their condemnation of Thackeray�s underlying arguments. This is the kind of issue that requires politicians from Maharashtra to express unequivocal outrage. Not one major leader, from Sharad Pawar to Vilasrao Deshmukh, has expressed the requisite sense of outrage or engaged in the kind political symbolism that can assure all Indian citizens that they are not quietly complicit in this dangerous madness.
…The absence of such signals suggests that the rot in our polity is deeper.
Second, we seem to be fundamentally confused over what this crisis represents….On the one hand, we want to boil it all down to politics. But in democracy when we say that there is a political logic behind some move, it is as much of an indictment of the voters as it is of politicians. On the other hand, we want to reaffirm our fundamental virtue. This is a fringe movement, we want to claim. The daily practices of life, the great ability to live with difference that most Indians embody, so the argument goes, are far too robust to be damaged by marginal elements.
But either way we are in trouble. If indeed, such ideological mobilisation can get mass traction we are in trouble. But even if this is a marginal movement, the fact that a lakshman rekha around what citizenship means in modern India has been crossed portends danger.
We can lose, because large numbers of people turn over to the dark side; or we can lose, because large numbers of people, even though they have not turned over to the dark side, are willing to let the fringe run riot. Either way we lose.
Third, this crisis reveals yet again the colossal leadership vacuum India is facing.
We have assorted chief ministers protesting at the goings-on in Maharasthtra. But they also use a language that refers to their particular constituencies…But no one at the national level is a credible, consistent and forceful embodiment of the basic constitutional values we need to defend.
The symbolic functions of leaders, whether they be leaders of parties or holders of high office, is that they consistently remind the nation of the boundaries that cannot be breached. But most of our leaders deal with these sorts of crises in avoidance mode.
…But we are now in a political environment where the refusal of our important leaders to express outrage will only embolden every two-bit leader to occupy centrestage.
Fourth, and perhaps most seriously, we need to move away from a discourse of diversity to a discourse about freedom.
Of course diversity is something to be cherished, but all the talk of diversity can also lead to some fundamental confusions. For one thing, diversity is quite compatible with segregation and even hierarchy. We often cherish diversity so long as everyone is in their rightful place. The minute implied boundaries are breached, populations mixed, cultures transformed, we scurry back to the protection of our enclaves….”
At least one political leader though has taken a “stand” on this…and I admire him even more for his forthright honesty:
Here is George Fernandes on Raj Thackeray�(excerpts below; emphasis mine)
“…In a letter written to Mr Raj Thackeray, Mr Fernandes said, �The road you have chosen is by making it known that your politics is going to be through violence…
…Mr Fernandes (also) said, �Do be from Maharashtra but be an Indian first...”
Well said, Shri Fernandes and I salute you for being outright and unequivocal in your condemnation.
