Dr. Shirish kashikar
Ahmedabad, July 22, 2021: After a long time once again MNS i.e. Maharashtra Navniraman Sena chief is back in limelight, for obvious reasons of community bashing. This time he has targeted “Adani group”. He is indirectly targeting Gujarati community by creating an unnecessary ruckus on a cultural event happened on Adani owned Mumbai airport.
A few days ago some employees of Adani group played garba on Mumbai airport after its acquisition from GVK group. It’s very natural for the Gujarati employees to do garba to celebrate an occasion.in fact now a days garba has become almost a compulsory event even in non Gujarati family events. But this gentlemen is threatening Adanis for doing Garba on airport. What nonsense!
Doesn’t he know he is carrying the legacy of an outdated political ideology? His late uncle Balasaheb Thackeray started political career with same “threat politics”. Balasaheb started it with targeting south Indians (“Bajao Pungi , Bhagao Lungi”) in the name of “Marathi Manoos ki Asmita”. It was an instant hit in Marathis residing in Mumbai,they accepted this gimmick, gradually Shivsena also targeted Gujaratis whenever there was a chance. But shrewd Thackeray knew that Gujaratis are milking cows for them,because without their money power Shivsena can not progress just on the basis on Marathi’s emotional blackmail & “political extortions”. In fact almost all top leaders of erstwhile Shivsena did this to control Mumbai politics, they succeeded too. But after a certain time period they realised increasing political capabilities of Gujaratis due to BJP. As Shivsena joined hands with BJP on the name of Hindutva they lowered their attacks on non Marathis & started new political ploy on the name of Hindutva.
Even in the presence of Balasaheb, Shivsena was splittted in two factions, Raj established his new political outfit Maharashtra Navniraman Sena with same old tactics of Balasaheb. He initially targeted North Indians in the name of unemployment of Marathi youth,his goons literally kicked out many North Indians out of Mumbai,again his ploy succeeded and he established his party in Maharashtra politics. But relying only on Marathi sentiments was a wrong move. He lost his ground with the same speed he achieved it. Now he is trying hard to regain his lost ground & his target is soft Gujarati community.
But let’s not forget that Mumbai or Maharashtra is not India,it’s just a small part of this great nation. No one has a right to threaten a peace loving,hard working business community on the name of language & culture. It is the same culture which has bonded multicultural Mumbai. Raj Thackeray must not dare to use Gujarati community’s culture & traditions for his political gains. If he wants to put his coal engine(election symbol of MNS) back on track there are many other ways, so Rajbhai,have some Dhokla & chill, don’t underestimate the power of a Gujarati.
