Regarding Raj Thackeray and the violence against Uttar Bharatiyas in Mumbai, an impression is being created that a monster has suddenly been unleashed on the scene. Actually these developments have been in the making for the last forty years but there is so much hypocrisy involved at different levels that no one wants to take the responsibility for the same.
It needs to be repeated time and again that the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena would never have prospered without the combined blessings of the corporate sector, the business class, the political class including the Congress and of course the high and mighty sections of the media.
People who do not appreciate a hungry face n on the front page because it will spoil the breakfast of its rich readers lose no opportunity to lionise the Sena leaders and their convoluted ideology. On the contrary, it is the have-nots, and not just the Marathi-speakers among them, who are under siege thanks to the growing influence of mega bucks. The two Senas have made it their singular agenda to speak in the name of the Marathi-speaking people while representing totally different interests.
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Nothing shows the true colours of MNS Chief Raj Thackeray and the Sena better than the devastation of the public sector Kohinoor Mill bang opposite the Sena Bhavan. It has been razed to the ground and some huge luxury structure is to come there with Raj figuring prominently among its promoters. Forget the moral issues involved, merely from the traffic point of view the proposal should have merited a stricter scrutiny because of its location at a junction, at a turn, a landmark of the city, which permits limited vehicular movement.
So what comes to the fore is that, brutal commercial forces can and will influence the civic body to widen the road to suit their own vested interests.
I was in Nepal as a tourist earlier this month and it was a pleasure to see the dignity with which common people are treated. The most magnificent historic city centres whether in Kathmandu or Bhaktapur are thrown open to common people. Right in the heart of Darbar Square at Kathmandu a large number of people sit in huge earmarked area selling piles of handicrafts, the likes of which one can come across either in a museum or in expensive antique shops in Mumbai or in the abodes of the rich.
If the two Senas truly represented the people, they could have used their clout to convert the mill land into a wonderful public space, which could have been used creatively.
Also, I had an opportunity to witness the poor administration in Uttar Pradesh, which is partly responsible for the migration of its populace to Mumbai. The state-run transport bus was filthy even as I embarked at Gorakhpur bus depot, the starting point. Travelling on a section of the road from Ayodhya to Allahabad meant being tossed around all the time through countless potholes. And in second-class train compartments the good citizens of eastern Uttar Pradesh just do not seem ignorant of the correct use of toilets, making them thoroughly unusable. What this represents is a huge disconnect in the society. It is not the poor who are to blame, but the political and social structures.
A few years ago in an article in Economic Times, I had mentioned that the Simplex Mill was among the many mills which were to be commercially developed. The management promptly denied it.
Even the recent photo exhibition at Rachana Sansad by Pukar showed that Simplex was one of the first to get converted into a shopping mall.
The exhibition brings into focus the sharp contrast between the old mill structures and the way they have been turned into blatant monuments of consumerism and luxury. The ‘Heritage Movement’ in Mumbai has done a lot to save and restore colonial buildings but has lacked a similar zeal in saving the mills and their labour.
Even more glaring is the failure on the part of people who whip up regional sentiment every now and then. At the same time, an exhibition of the award winning entries of the students of Rachana Sansad was held on the fourth floor; what was remarkable was the way one exhibition went gaga over the Hiranandani Complex, which of course stemmed from the rather pedestrian manner of looking at architecture merely in terms of the built structure and general ambience sans any understanding of the economic and social aspects involved.
The complex in question was lionised for its greenery but the sad fact remains that the whole edifice came into being at the cost of the surrounding green hills, which I had a chance to see years ago while on a visit to the IIT campus. It would be unfair to be harsh on the students in the present weather where money and success take precedence over human values. Yet another irony is that the award for this particular entry was given in the name of Nari Gandhi, who was a humanist architect. Arguably, the complex is a prominent example of exclusive architecture, which keeps out common people. But here it is lauded as a complex in response to common people's needs.
There were other glaring anomalies as well. Like the wide-open spaces in housing board colonies like Tilak Nagar, Chembur and Gandhi Nagar, East Bandra, which too were showcased in the aforementioned exhibition. Well, once can only hope that the concerned housing authorities and local residents resist the builder mafia from wresting ownership of these colonies and start keeping a photographic record of the Nagars.
While the office of the President of India surely deserves high respect, it has been seen landing in controversies in Maharashtra recently. Surely, protocol needs to be maintained but it is time the President Pratibha Patil herself suggests a solution. Her august presence at the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Sangli and the Marathi Natya Sammelan in Solapur, both mammoth gatherings, last week evoked several problems, in that the real stars, the writers, and theatre personalities were completely eclipsed.
Kudos to the leading novelist, Arun Sadhu, President of the Sammelan in Nagpur last year did well to boycott this year's Sammelan in protest.
At the Natya Sammelan, certain repulsive Bollywood stars who would be shunned in any intelligent gathering, were invited as chief guests because of their star value. This makes a complete mockery of the proceedings as people take more interest in these stars, at the cost of theatre artistes who are far more talented.
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