Whats in a name
October 5th, 2009
Quite a lot if you are Raj Thakeray. Mumbai is Mumbai and not Bombay. It’s like rose by any other name would not be a rose. Shakespeare can go climb a gum tree for all he cares, along with all his idioms and stuff. ‘Wake up Sid’ or ‘Wake up KJo’? I don’t really know about Sid but KJo sure got a wake up call there. Not surprisingly, he apologized to Raj for his ‘blunder’. Actually anyone would, if they have Rs 35 crores riding on whether it’s called Mumbai or Bombay. And now as far as KJo is concerned, Bombay may go to hell. It never existed and never will. It’s Mumbai and only Mumbai.
In my opinion these so called Bollywood bigwigs should stop embarrassing themselves in this manner. I remember it was Anil Kapoor initially who made ridiculous statements like Jai Maharashtra! Jai Mumbai! while at the Oscar ceremony where Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar for Best Picture. I really wonder what was so great about the city or the state as far as this movie was concerned. If anything, it was the other way round. Obviously, it was meant for consumption of people like Raj Thakeray. To be candid Anil Kapoor seemed very stupid saying what he did at that time. And now KJo has made an absolute fool of himself by first making a stupid mistake and then by apologizing when he should just’ve dismissed the whole thing as a non issue. Also, he could’ve just said that once the film has been cleared by Censor Board of India Raj Thakeray has no business to act funny. But then, KJo’s mortal and mortals are scared of losing money even if it means losing their pride. Moreover, he has to live in Mumbai. As they say- we continue to be guided by our fears and not by our courage.
Fact is that Raj Thakeray has a problem- a big one at that. He and his newly formed party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have an identity crisis. Since Raj broke off from Shiv Sena he has tried to hijack the agenda of Marathi Manoos from them. To achieve this purpose he uses the tactics of arm wrestling, which Shiv Sena was proficient at, quite effectively. And it’s working. He bagged nine seats from Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections of 2009 with an overall vote share of over 4% and a whopping 20% in Mumbai alone. Not surprisingly, people like Anil Kapoor and KJo are shit scared of him. Pride be damned.
Raj Thakeray, in a way is no different from any other run of the mill politicians we have in the country. It’s just that that he speaks too much, even if it is only in Marathi. If he were to just float a party without having any specific agenda nobody would give two hoots to him. And therefore he embarked upon this violent campaign to further his interests. It doesn’t matter to him if he promotes regionalism and division within the country. It doesn’t matter to him if he creates an issue where there are none. It doesn’t matter to him if non Maharashtrians are being ostracized in Maharashtra. All that matters to him is his vote share and his vote bank, more so now when elections in the state are just round the corner.
Before I sign off I would like to ask two questions to Mr Raj Thakeray.
1. He keeps speaking in Marathi even while speaking to non Maharashtrians and that too while he’s quite proficient in Hindi. What would he do when he goes abroad? Will he continue to talk in Marathi there as well?
2. In all his diatribe against non Maharshtrians living in Maharashtra he has implied that they should be made to leave the state. According to him it is because of them that the ethnic Marathi Manoos has been denied a share in the developmental pie. Well, if that be true why doesn’t he call upon Maharashtrians who are not living in Maharashtra to come back to the state? After all they also are eating into the developmental pie of some state or the other. No offense meant to anyone, please.
Simply put, this man would be a dangerous preposition if he comes to power. Avoid this man and his party if we want to be Indians first.
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October 5th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Raj Thakeray is 1 thoro bred MARATHI MANOOS. If he has taken up cudgels on behalf of us he's f**** right. there is no doubt that Mumbai nd Maharashtra wud be miles ahead of others if v were not bogged down by outsiders. this state gives more to our country than d rest of states put together but still we r not able to progress as fast as v shud- if u want 2 get sentimental abt Raj, go ahead. but plz bear in mind that Marathi folks r with him.
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October 5th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Since we are so casteist and regional, let us divide the country into 800000 postal districts, with passport support.
Come on friends, humanity has to integrate, Europe after many years is now united, and Americans are wondering if Extreme Patriotism is beneficial, Indianess is not restricted to India alone.
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October 6th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
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October 6th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
He is nt d only one. there r so many others who preach regionalism, karunanidhi is one such person. raj is only cashing on time tested formula- whip up ethnic emotions against outsiders. addionally, he is a greenhorn who is only learning tricks of trade from other politicians like bal thakeray nd karunanidhi.
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October 10th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
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