Saturday, November 1, 2008

Nikhil Wagle's article

Nikhil Wagle dubbed by many as Shiv Sena's erstwhile bête noire. Today, in his dulcet tones, he continues to launch heavy criticism against Raj Thackeray, MNS and the issue of Marathi pride. In a debate I happened to suffer through, his melodious questions ran like a refrain - "Why did RT not protest against North Indians when he was in Shiv Sena". Regardless of what the hapless Shirish Parkar would say, the refrain would return like a bad archvillain in a corny horror story. Well, to be fair Wagle seemed to browbeat Parkar by his sweet sounding musical voice. So I thought that a rebuttal where my brain wasn't being intruded by the journalist's ultrasonic ululations was due.

Dear Waggle, the problem of North Indian immigration leading to deprival of jobs for local residents was a faint trickle ten years back. I have fond memories of my north Indian bhaiyya bhaji-wala (vegetable vendor) polishing brinjals with his lungi. I also recall that my bhaji-wala bhaiya was also probably one of the few people for whom I had to dig into my Hindi speaking skills. I definitely do not recall 9 out of 10 cab drivers refusing to ferry me to my desired destination 10 years back, as much as today (then it was probably 4 out of 10). I do not recall even conceptual talk about SEZs. I don't recall steel plants and industries that bought local land from villagers in promise of jobs and steady income. I don't recall the selfsame industries bringing truckloads of immigrant labour thereby cheating the local man. This fact was in fact pointed out to me by this blog. So, what would RT protest about when in Shiv Sena? A future possibility of inundation of Maharashtra by potential Northern immigrants? Wow, he would have to be a super-clairvoyant to do that, don't you think?

In this article, Wagle says that it is primarily lower-class Marathi youth that is supporting RT. So now you want to divide Marathi society along class lines? Well played, Nikhil. It further says that the left intelligentsia are cynical and haven't protested. Well, firstly, every time the left shows any sign of intelligence, is usually a time to drop everything you are carrying and run hard in the opposite direction. Leftist policies have been primarily responsible for most amount of corruption, backwardness and poverty in India. Communism may seem like a hot and sexy idea. But actually it's all about boob-jobs and botox injections. Every communist society has degraded into laziness, lack of competitiveness, power for a select group of smart people, and utter misery for a much much much larger section. History has time and again proven the fallibility of communist and leftist policies.

While the closing parts of the article redeem it a bit, here's a question for NW: You are so opposed to RT because apparently he is a political pawn. But hey, he is at least doing something - an agitation for a cause. What are you doing?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Followers