Why our farmers, India's backbone, turning their back on life?
Time for serious introspection and action towards giving our fellow brethren a hope, a hand forward and making them understand their right to life.
Its quite old data but still valid as it is alarming to see when one searches the internet for database on death of Indian farmers. The first name that props up is of Maharashtra. Given below is a link to a study done by India's premier institute the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
On one hand where we cannot let this go on as society we as Indians have never bothered to touch these issues as life has started becoming more demanding and all-inclusive of I,Me&Myself.
While the leaders of Maharashtra and even India as a whole have never reached out to this heart-wrenching calamity that strikes in the lives of a small village family on a daily basis.
The so called "Young Indians" of Maharashtra are busy "throwing the gauntlet" while the major issues go under the carpet.
This particular open letter is addressed to MNS chief Raj Thackeray and I copy it from The Sunday Express, Mumbai :
THINKING ALOUD
An open letter to Raj Thackeray
Sudheendra Kulkarni
Posted online: Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 2247 hrs Print Email
Related Stories
Why Raj Thackeray is wrong-and right
An open letter to Raj Thackeray
Sudheendra Kulkarni
Posted online: Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 2247 hrs Print Email
Related Stories
Why Raj Thackeray is wrong-and right
Dear Shri Raj Thackeray,
You will surely be surprised to see me writing an open letter to you. Given our acquaintance, it would have been proper on my part to share my thoughts with you privately. But the issues that you have raised through your recent ill-advised and condemnable campaign against north Indians are of public nature, and hence require a public response.
When a matter becomes contentious, some people find it difficult to see or acknowledge the positive side of the person they criticise. In your case, the national media has painted you as someone who is nothing but a hate-monger. I know that it is not entirely fair. I have carefully read, and re-read, your signed article in Marathi titled Maazi Bhoomika, Maaza Ladha (My Stand, My Struggle) in the Maharashtra Times of February 9, and think that some of your arguments are far too nuanced to be simply categorised as hate speech. For example, should Marathi and Maharashtrian culture survive in Mumbai? Yes, they must, just as Bengali must survive in Kolkata, Tamil in Chennai, and Kannada in Bangalore.
Should people who come from outside show respect for local culture and try to imbibe its good points, while also imparting the good points of their own culture to the new place where they work and live? Most certainly they should.
Let me also point out for the knowledge of people outside Maharashtra that, as a budding political leader, you have been promoting certain constructive activities that are novel, rare and praiseworthy. For example, politicians in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar would certainly be doing great service to Hindi literature and the Hindi publishing industry if they started paying as much attention to these neglected aspects as you have started doing for Marathi language and literature. Have they ever bothered that a best-selling good book in Hindi does not sell, in the entire Hindi-speaking region, half as many copies as a good Marathi book does?
Similarly, which young or veteran politician in these states has set up an academy, as you have done in Pune, to train young social and political activists in dealing with the challenges of navnirman (a new model of development)? How many political parties in India are promoting educational, vocational, and entrepreneurship training opportunities for young people as your newly formed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has been doing in an embryonic way?
Even at the risk of being misunderstood by my friends in Delhi, I am saying these good things about you because I believe that you are right in some, though not all, of the concerns you have voiced. But I am sorry to say that you have fallen prey to the temptation of gaining quick political mileage by targeting ‘north Indians’ as a whole in a crude attempt, perhaps, to score over the party that you broke away from.
If Abu Azmi, or some other leaders claiming to represent the ‘north Indian voters’ in Mumbai have behaved haughtily, and shown disrespect for the city’s Marathi-speaking people, protest by all means. But why are you yourself showing disrespect to the entire community of north Indians, as is evident from your article and your other reported statements? How can you allow your supporters to take law into their hands and do raada (street mayhem)? Can you justify the politics of violence against a fellow-Indian, as was evident when an innocent employee of HAL was killed in a stone-throwing incident in Nashik following your arrest in Mumbai?
I am all for due honour to be shown to Marathi culture and, indeed, to the specific culture of all the diverse regions in India. Each of them is a wonderful flower in the bouquet of India’s national culture. Linguistic pride and regional ethos do not conflict with nationalism. Rather, they complement and enrich it. But when anyone espouses them in a parochial manner, it evokes a negative reaction all around, and the loser is not only the person espousing it but also the culture being espoused. For instance, how can you say that Biharis in Mumbai have no right to perform Chhath Puja by the sea? Do you know the implications of this for those who celebrate Ganeshotsav in Delhi, Lucknow, Patna and elsewhere? How can you say there can be no functions in Mumbai to celebrate ‘UP Divas’? In that case, can there be Maharashtra Day functions in Delhi? Does Amitabh Bachchan become a UPwallah simply because he has sung ‘Chora Ganga kinarewallah’? What, then, will others say about Lata Mangeshkar, some of whose finest songs are in praise of Marathi and Maharashtra?
Parochialism is a double-edged sword. Never pull it out of its sheath, especially in a multi-lingual city like Mumbai, where most residents are migrants anyway. (Consider the sobering results of a readers’ poll by this paper two days ago: 67 per cent of the respondents said ‘Yes’ when asked ‘Are you a migrant to the city where you live?’) Mumbai, Maharashtra, Marathi-speaking people — and India — will suffer enormously if you continue your parochial campaign, and I am sure you care for all four.
Regards
When a matter becomes contentious, some people find it difficult to see or acknowledge the positive side of the person they criticise. In your case, the national media has painted you as someone who is nothing but a hate-monger. I know that it is not entirely fair. I have carefully read, and re-read, your signed article in Marathi titled Maazi Bhoomika, Maaza Ladha (My Stand, My Struggle) in the Maharashtra Times of February 9, and think that some of your arguments are far too nuanced to be simply categorised as hate speech. For example, should Marathi and Maharashtrian culture survive in Mumbai? Yes, they must, just as Bengali must survive in Kolkata, Tamil in Chennai, and Kannada in Bangalore.
Should people who come from outside show respect for local culture and try to imbibe its good points, while also imparting the good points of their own culture to the new place where they work and live? Most certainly they should.
Let me also point out for the knowledge of people outside Maharashtra that, as a budding political leader, you have been promoting certain constructive activities that are novel, rare and praiseworthy. For example, politicians in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar would certainly be doing great service to Hindi literature and the Hindi publishing industry if they started paying as much attention to these neglected aspects as you have started doing for Marathi language and literature. Have they ever bothered that a best-selling good book in Hindi does not sell, in the entire Hindi-speaking region, half as many copies as a good Marathi book does?
Similarly, which young or veteran politician in these states has set up an academy, as you have done in Pune, to train young social and political activists in dealing with the challenges of navnirman (a new model of development)? How many political parties in India are promoting educational, vocational, and entrepreneurship training opportunities for young people as your newly formed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has been doing in an embryonic way?
Even at the risk of being misunderstood by my friends in Delhi, I am saying these good things about you because I believe that you are right in some, though not all, of the concerns you have voiced. But I am sorry to say that you have fallen prey to the temptation of gaining quick political mileage by targeting ‘north Indians’ as a whole in a crude attempt, perhaps, to score over the party that you broke away from.
If Abu Azmi, or some other leaders claiming to represent the ‘north Indian voters’ in Mumbai have behaved haughtily, and shown disrespect for the city’s Marathi-speaking people, protest by all means. But why are you yourself showing disrespect to the entire community of north Indians, as is evident from your article and your other reported statements? How can you allow your supporters to take law into their hands and do raada (street mayhem)? Can you justify the politics of violence against a fellow-Indian, as was evident when an innocent employee of HAL was killed in a stone-throwing incident in Nashik following your arrest in Mumbai?
I am all for due honour to be shown to Marathi culture and, indeed, to the specific culture of all the diverse regions in India. Each of them is a wonderful flower in the bouquet of India’s national culture. Linguistic pride and regional ethos do not conflict with nationalism. Rather, they complement and enrich it. But when anyone espouses them in a parochial manner, it evokes a negative reaction all around, and the loser is not only the person espousing it but also the culture being espoused. For instance, how can you say that Biharis in Mumbai have no right to perform Chhath Puja by the sea? Do you know the implications of this for those who celebrate Ganeshotsav in Delhi, Lucknow, Patna and elsewhere? How can you say there can be no functions in Mumbai to celebrate ‘UP Divas’? In that case, can there be Maharashtra Day functions in Delhi? Does Amitabh Bachchan become a UPwallah simply because he has sung ‘Chora Ganga kinarewallah’? What, then, will others say about Lata Mangeshkar, some of whose finest songs are in praise of Marathi and Maharashtra?
Parochialism is a double-edged sword. Never pull it out of its sheath, especially in a multi-lingual city like Mumbai, where most residents are migrants anyway. (Consider the sobering results of a readers’ poll by this paper two days ago: 67 per cent of the respondents said ‘Yes’ when asked ‘Are you a migrant to the city where you live?’) Mumbai, Maharashtra, Marathi-speaking people — and India — will suffer enormously if you continue your parochial campaign, and I am sure you care for all four.
Regards
MNS' Raj Thackeray has once again put his words out and this link proves it again that he ain't giving up while comparing his "movement" for the Marathi Manus with Gandhiji, Advani & Godhra!
Please, please, please stop dividing INDIA/Bharat!
Another story from the archives states that every 8hour there is one suicide in Vidharba!
What is BHARAT desh doing to stop this?
In his Opinion We Don't Talk To The Farmer
I quite understand the over all view point and hope some one especially from Maharashtra does some thing extra-ordinary for improving the situation. First by stopping the farmers from thinking about suicide!
Forget just Vidharba the farmer next door district of Mumbai, Thane faces the same fate?
Why doesn't any of the ThreeThackerays ever go and make it an issue of NATIONAL IMPORTANCE? We do have Shiv Sena in India's Parliament. What do they do?
Then we also have Mr. Sharad Pawar - one of the richest ever Politicians in India who is also a sugar baron. What has he done towards this baffling suicidal tendency of the farmer?
If one takes a closer look at majority of People's Representatives from Maharashtra in the Assembly or the Parliament one can see how rich they be.
Here is a peek into how much our Politicians declare their income and assests.
In 2004 Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar had declared his assests as Rs. 18.5 million!!!!!
But his daughter Supriya Sule who is a Member of Parliament now declared her assests at a whopping Rs 41.52 crore!!!!!!!!
Jaw-droppeddddddd!!!!!!!
Well it's time WE ALL INDIANS started taking active interest in how our Nation is being ru(i)ned!!!
Wake Up!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment