I read Dr. Mohan Bhagwat’s statement that “Every Indian belongs to India. There are various languages and religions which have their own identity. Hindutva for us is considering them as part of one (entity) and we do not believe in things like Marathi pride." Talk like that in Mumbai Mohan, talk like that in Shivaji Park!

It is a pity that BJP made a poor show in the last Parliamentary and the recent Assembly elections even with its alliance with Shiva Sena. While I cannot ignore the fact that the Marathi speaking people of Maharashtra were under represented in work places by people from other states, the service rendered by Shiva Sena has served its leaders well, much more than it served the Marathi Manoos. I lived in Mumbai for almost fifteen years and I received courtesy, sympathy and love from every Marathi speaking person I came across. Yet I detected unwillingness in them to accommodate people of other states. That is simply because of the fact that migrant population is hungry than native population and do better economically in the long run. Even when one lives in foreign countries, one does not fail to notice it. I received that kind of hostility in my own native village because the people I grew up with noticed the fact that I was economically better off than them.

How did the leaders of Shiva Sena progress themselves? That is only because they came from other towns and states. At the same time, the progress made by native people has been limited. More or less, it helped the families of various leaders of that organization became multi millionaires by spreading hate among Marathi speaking people and motivating them to be violent and hurtful of poor people going to Mumbai and other states to make a living. These so called leaders who have taken hostage of Lord Shiva and the “Manoos” who would stop at nothing to create communal tension and fighting in one pretext or another have been extorting money from film makers, local manufacturers, builders and other businessmen. No wonder there is truth in what Narayan Rane said “Money going to Mathosree never see the light of the day!” Now what started out as a family outfit has become a two headed dragon, each head trying to swallow the other for control of “Manoos Vote Bank” and the “haftha!”

It is a pity that BJP had to have coalition with that organization and still had to do so poorly.