This is a very old issue, I would like to add my view to this. Unlike many people(rest of India) and media, when Raj Thackarey actively took up this issue most marathi people (labor class to be specific - the ones affected) silently supported him. Here is what I had come to an conclusion after hearing some of the thoughts of those people during my mumbai-sholapur trip last year.
The issue had many angles: - The whole thing would have never come up if it wasn't for the laborers(maybe with vested interests) from Bihar who insulted Marathi's on the streets of mumbai. Many signs like "Bihar divas" and slogans undermining the labor class of marathi's for being lazy were made. All this happened before the maha-chath puja which was being planned. The Marathi tribe - mind you, a very proud tribe - cannot accept this in there home ground, and hence the story began. Once the economists and analysts jumped into this bandwagon, it did not take much time to come up with numbers to support there claim for stopping this immigrants inflow. An average bihari/up migrant was ready to work for almost half the rate that a Maharastrian accepts. (and for longer time periods) (as pointed out by amitabh sir) But the story doesn't end there. A bihari or UP guy once employed has a tendency to bring atleast four others from his native place into the same workplace and replace marathi laborers who are any day costlier for the employer. This cycle of bringing your cousins and friends to replace local labor became a full-fledged affair and led to massive increase in unemployment of Marathi laborers in last few years (specially in the industrial zones). Upon that, almost a large majority of these migrants are non-tax payers, which means local people lose job and Maharashtra does not get any tax. It was already a burning issue before Thackeray took over and that's why there was immediately so much support for him from the locals. Even Bal Thackeray had to give comments as he realized the potential threat to his people from this continuous inflow. And once you have people like azmi who did not give it one proper thought and talked about using sticks to beat up Marathi's who protest and threaten, one could no longer expect chocolates, flowers, sympathy and Gandhi-waad in return. Many say, marathi's stooped low when this happened, and made comments like "mumbai for India" and all... but one who is on the ground there knows... "Mumbai for India is fine, but at what cost?" If you are a bihari or up bhaiya in mumbai, you would know why these people are angry... regards, On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 8:35 AM, Amitabh Thakur <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Human worth > > Recently during my trip to Pune via Mumbai and back, I had some such > firsthand experience of facts which are not only of concern to one and all > but also show how much different perspectives people might have exactly on > the same set of problems. > > I was invited as the President of National RTI Forum at a Seminar in a > management Institute by the name of Sadhana, being run by Prof M V Pillai at > Poone. For this I went from Lucknow to Mumbai via a flight and came back the > same way but luckily I had the opportunity to go Mumbai to Poona and back on > cab. And incidentally, on the two routes I had different drivers- one from > Maharashtra and one from Bihar. > > By habit, I had conversations with both of them. While the initial > conversation was general in nature, by curiosity very soon I came to the > insider-outsider issue. The person who took me to Poone from Mumbai was a > native of Poone. It started with a large number of posters of a prominent > politician replete with Birth-day wishes. I asked him what he thought about > him. The cab-driver was all praise for him. He said that this person had > done a lot for the people from Maharashtra. Then I asked him what he thought > about the very large number of people from other parts of the country coming > to Mumbai and getting settled down. He replied- “Well, we don’t mind people > coming but there is a problem these people are creating.” When further > queried, he said that these people are having adverse effect on the labour > market. They were willing to work for very lowly amounts. Since they came to > get some employment at any cost, they accepted any wage that they could. > Thus for a watchman, the monthly rate could be as low as Rs. 2000 to 3000. > Moreover these people had no family with them and hence they were willing to > remain at the workplace 24 hours, if they got any small place in a corner to > sleep. Thus, these people live a wretched life, working day and night. > Surely such a thing is adversely affecting the local people, because they > can’t work 24 hours, living with their families elsewhere not could they > afford to work at such paltry sums. This phenomenon had a very adverse > effect on the entire job market, at the lower end. > > I saw much logic in what he was saying but when coming back I got another > story on the same context. This time the driver was from Darbhanga in > Mithila region of Bihar. When asked the same question, he said that it were > the local people who were responsible for their plight. If they did not work > hard and sincerely, who will keep them in job? After all, many local > businessmen and industrialists were preferring the people from outside to > the local people. There must be some reason for that. Then he started > narrating the contributions made by outsider people in and around Mumbai. > > When asked about his own life, he narrated his one day in the following > terms- > He had woken up at 3.30 ij the morning, after the daily rituals reached his > office at 7 AM, was assigned his job which he went on doing till 10 PM in > the night. At that time when he was thinking to get back to his Chawl, he > suddenly got an instruction to take a passenger from Airport to Poone. He > reached Poone at 3 AM in the night. Slept in the cab for 2 hours. Reached > his Poone office at 6 and was told about me to be taken to Mumbai at 11 AM. > slept for 3 hours in the office and was now taking me back,. We reached > Mumbai at around 4 PM. He would have reported to the office by 5.30 PM and > then the decision about his further work would be intimated to him. > > The story of the first driver was no different. He was also awake for some > 24 hours. And they get a princely sum of Rs. 6000 per month for all this > work. In this money, they save a part for their family back home. And if > they fall ill and are absent for more than 4 days in a month they don’t get > salary for those days. If they are seek for a month or so, they have to take > loan from loan-sharks. And it takes nearly 6 months to pay them back. This > process goes on forever till the time their life’s journey ends- either > through an accelerated natural death or through some violence erupting out > of Insider-outsider issue. > > Amitabh Thakur > IPS, > Currently at IIM Lucknow > # 94155-34526 > > > -- Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to. Save Paper - Save Environment -- Mahek
