Marathi manoos, rest assured

Osama Bin laden did more harm to Muslims across the globe than to the American, or the global non-Muslim psyche. He isolated the Muslims from the rest of the global community and made them the subject of suspicion and mistrust.
The same is happening to Maharashtrians in our country. The Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are slowly isolating the Maharashtrians with their parochial politicking. “Mumbai is for Indians” has become a highly explosive statement that has the potential to detonate a political explosion, causing toxic fumes across the country. Sachin Tendulkar tried the line and got caught behind. Mukesh Ambani tried it too. His position and wealth did not allow more than a few murmurs of protest. When the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief, Mohan Bhagwat, came up with the same sound byte, the Marathi champions were livid. The BJP’s new chief, Nitin Gadkari, a Maharashtrian, cleverly reworded the “Mumbai for Indians” slogan, saying, “There are regional, linguistic and other identities of people, but they all converge into the larger identity of Indianness. There could never be or should be a conflict among these various identities.”
Brave words from the Shiv Sena’s alliance partner, especially amid the recent row over making knowledge of Marathi compulsory for Mumbai taxi operators. There was an official decision to this effect, then a U-turn. But the Sena rivals already have their fingers ready on the linguistic trigger to cause trouble to non-Marathi taxi drivers.
The BJP has so long been swallowing the Shiv Sena’s bitter pill for north Indians, without letting it affect its sweet tooth. Suddenly, the BJP has decided to coat that pill with sugar to get sweet returns in the Bihar Assembly elections this year-end.
The Marathi manoos campaign has discoloured the saffron parivar for now, with the RSS and BJP vociferously carrying out a “Mumbai for Indians” campaign.
But the biggest loser in this political game is the Marathi manoos. There is already a growing mistrust among the north Indian community against the political perpetrators of this linguistic campaign. But if stern action is not taken against the villains of peace, the animosity might soon invade the middle class Indians’ drawing rooms, and kick up dust, that might hurt the Marathi eyes.
The need of the hour is for progressive Indians to assure the Marathi manoos that they need not panic about being alienated by the non-Marathis just because a handful of power-hungry politicians are scheming an ominous plot to grab the seat of democracy.