Karachi to Krishna
Blame the shoddy governance, as much as the Sena goons, for the renaming of Karachi Sweets.
The owners of one of the landmark sweet shops of Mumbai, the Karachi Sweet Mart is changing over to Jai Shri Krishna sweets now. Well, the shop owner has full rights to choose any name for his shop and there should be no problems with apparently a “personal decision” of Mr. Sachdev, the shop owner. But it was instigated by a letter from the local MNS activist asking Mr. Sachdev to change the name or “face the music”.
Even local cops had suggested that Sachdev change the name.
However, state home minister Jayant Patil and city police commissioner Hassan Gafoor assured Sachdev through TOI that no harm would come to him. They asked him to get in touch with them and told TOI that local cops would do everything to protect him. Mulund cops were even posted in front of the shop.
But, the assurances seem to have had little effect. Signboards bearing the name Karachi Sweet Mart were removed from the shops in Mulund and Thane on Saturday.[TOI]
The muddled response is a reflection of the state of lawlessness that India is heading towards. This is not the sort of lawlessness caused by terror attacks aided and abetted by Pakistan, but a lawlessness totally of our own making — a thuggish entity, masquerading as a political party, and an effete state.With no easy alternatives available, people accept the hardships that arise due to weak rule of law. Or they eventually seek the protection of the biggest goon, granting him a democratic legitimacy by catapulting him into power.
It is obvious that the common man has completely lost faith in the state to protect him from the goons. This lack of trust is a failure of governance — the way the government conducts its operations in economic, political and social spheres that concern the citizen of this country. Blame it on the pusillanimity of the government, that has allowed the state to wither away to such an extent that a few hoodlums — who should have been rounded up and put behind bars — rather than the instruments of the state, can dictate the actions of the common man.
As my fellow bloggers at INI never fail of reminding us — A government which cannot protect us from rainwater cannot protect us from terrorists. Or some small time goons, in Mr. Sachdev’s case.
Governance matters. Governance comes from an elected government. Elections are decided on votes. Thus voting matters. And so does setting the right agenda for elections. Rather than turn cynical about governance and political parties, it is more important to stay connected with electoral politics in all possible manner. That is, if governance matters more to you than the goons.
IMHO this is a bigger threat then terror from across the borders. MNS is the Indian version of Taliban and exemplary action is required to nip it in the bud but we seem to be headed nowhere…
If you breed snakes, poison is what you will get. Maharashtra bred Bala Saheb Thackeray and his lineage carries on, without any regard of law of land. Worms like Raj, so called supremo ( I wonder if he can be called a supremo) of that goon congregation called MNS, remain hidden when faced with crisis like 26/11 and start surfacing when they estimate public anger has started tapering off. It would have been really nice to hear his squeaks when entire Mumbai was holding candle – light vigils. It is shameful that politics of today has to put up with such brats; and i am using the word brat for the sake of being politically correct.
I don’t see any difference between these goons and Talibans who asked men not to shave or women not to go to school in Pak-Afg!!
Why don’t they confine these kind of anti-social elements permanently to some prison. Perhaps, this is election time and he knows very well that nobody is going to touch him. On the contrary, Congress may rope him in to counter balance his uncle. After all politics is the last refuge of all scoundrels.
Book Raj Thackeray under NSA!
Oh please, BJP should cut its ties with organisations which claim to be representing Hindus like Ram Sena – who attacked women in Mangalore Pub.
Link
There is absolutely no difference between Talibans and these goons.
Dear forgetful friends,
The arm twisting that you see is opportunism in response to continued breaking or subversion of the law and the failure of rule of the law at the expense of the natives of the state. A few examples:
1. There is a law that boards of all establishments should be in Marathi written in the Devnagari script.
2. All appointments should be routed through the local employment exchange.
3. Do you remember the case when Salman Khan had run over a person who was sleeping on the pavement; I wonder why Salman Khan’s lawyers did not bring the point of the inappropriateness of foot paths for sleeping. That guy was not a vagabond or a delinquent but a bakery worker, there is a law that an establishment should make adequate arrangements of accommodation for their employees.
4.Those who follow the law (the natives of Maharashtra) have always lost in the rat race, why do you forget that large tracts of Mumbai have buildings illegally built over forest land.
5. Ulhas Nagar had so many building violations that every one got together and coerced an amnesty.
6. This is the real terror the breaking down of law and order, most of Mumbai lives in illegal slums, travels in conditions, illegal even to transport cattle, these are the conditions conducive for the breeding of terrorism and crime. And demented morons take potshots at the natives of Maharashtra.
7. This love of the law is very selective, I did not hear a great deal of ruckus when a government employee was tortured and murdered during extortion allegedly on behalf of a senior national level politician, to fund her birthday extravaganza.
8. Why was there silence when the entire Deccan Queen was set on fire by hooligans apparently in protest against a ghastly murder in Vidarbha.
Shame Shame!!!!!!
@ Mr. Khandke -
I don’t doubt the problems you have, but consider this:
If Raj Thackeray has the support he does, and lives in the land of Gandhi, then why doesn’t he simply take up civil disobedience?
I very much support Raj Thakre, because his state has been singled out for colonization by the rest of the country. When people in Tibet riot against Chinese, the Chinese respond with a mixture of bewilderment and venom (“what’s not to like about us?”)
I think states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in particular need a lesson in how to deal with other communities. They are the loudest and most brash, expecting everyone to cater to them. When Mulayam Singh Yadav was bellowing “Halla Bol!” while thrashing people, then nobody cared to say much about that. But when someone dares to oppose the loudmouths from self-appointed brown sahibs from those states, then one is branded “communal”.
Nah, I don’t buy it for a second. I’m glad that Raj is thrashing heads, because those heads deserve it.
No right thinking person would support anybody indulging in vandalism and violence.
Also this bracketing of the countrymen into UP walla, Bihar walla, North walla, and South walla is against the letter and spirit of our constitution. It is against our culture and our religion, our gods and our holy places are in the Himalayas and the Gangetic planes are we to deny them, are we going to choose one at the expense of the other, Kashi or Rameshwaram?
It is only the conceited and prejudiced reactions, hypocrisy and double standards that hurt peaceful and law abiding citizens.
Squatting on government and private land, hawking, getting illegal resident passes (aka ration cards), utility connections, that is breaking the law. Where are all the channels when this subversion takes place every hour every day?
How can one forget the cacophony when prostitution dens masquerading under the guise of a legal activity, were ordered to be shut down? It was as if honest workers toiling productively were put out of work. This is not about the right of consenting adults to have sex with each other for consideration or other wise. These places work under a license which defines the scope of their activities, did these women and their pimps who ran these fronts, pay taxes to the government on the money that they earned?
Where were the pseudo – law abiders who bemoan the breakdown of law an order in Mumbai as a reaction to one thing or the other, then?
The above and the previous post of course should not be mis-constructed as a judgment on the name change, why do these intellectually disabled extortionists forget that there is Sindh in our National Anthem* and Gandhar in Mahabharat, Panini composed his Ahstadhyayi near Atak** on the banks of the Indus, yes the same Atak beyond which Raghunathrao carried the Zari Patka of the Marathas.
Why can we not have a hunderd places in Mumbai calling themselves Karachi this and Karachi that?
*(If any body has a doubt, the supreme court has ruled that the anthem for one reason or the other is among other things a work of art and should not be fiddled with, any body who doubts the veracity of this statement can do a search and check for himself).
** It is contemporarily spelt Attock but pronounced just the same.
@ Sanjay: Raj Thakre’s state has been singled out for colonization? Since when did it become Raj Thakre’s state? Is it his personal fiefdom? I am sure, like raj thakre, when you say Maharashtra, you only mean Mumbai. Where else in Maharashtra have so called UP and Bihar wallahs swallowed jobs that are to be held by Maharashtrians? Myopic regionalism is what you bring to table dear friend. Since one goon acted in a particular manner in UP, does it give a license to every goon of the ilk of MNS supremo ( i can’t stop laughing at that term “supremo”) to go on and become a law themselves?
If Mumbai is able to nurture and provide a living to anybody who is ready to work harder and be more innovative than the Marathi Manoos, why should it cause a heartburn to a lazy goon? He is going to get his hafta anyway, be it from a marathi manoos or from a UP, Bihar wala.
I think it is time to stop such people in their tracks before petty regionalism again starts pushing us towards an era which British found immensely exploitable.
Can Raj Thackeray’s state not be read as the state that Raj belongs too?
Harder and smarter??
The ability to live 15 to a room and hundred to a few square feet of place available for excrement.
The ability to allow oneself to be exploited as an under aged under paid worker, and/ or against all laws such as those which forbid a day longer than eight hours or a paid weekly off.
The ability to live long years away from home, family and friends, not for any noble pursuit or for great material gain but merely to keep the body going.
The ability to create and live in illegal housing and the ability to obtain various utilities and other licenses.
The ability to exist in multiple voters lists.
Why does an employer love an immigrant worker, not because he works harder or is smarter but because an immigrant allows himself to be exploited. Accidents can be hushed up. Terminations can be summary. They can be denied the right to organise and other statutory rights.
Immigrant workers are like castrated bulls, or the neutral worker bees in a bee hive, their only purpose of existence is to work.
Can a nation of such immigrant workers be considered healthy? No wonder despite the over billion of us, we managed only the odd gold in the recent Olympics.
Is this artificial society not contributing to inefficiency and deviations like prostitution and alcoholism?
The problem is that most cannot see beyond their noses, and these blind fools think it is hard work and smartness.
Yogesh
Do all your points justify vandalism of MNS goons?
Why not have Karachi shop in Mumbai when we have “Aurangabad” in name of mass murderer, and lot of people naming their sons as Stalins, in the name of another mass murderer? These are personal choices and the choice of naming my shop is MINE and not state’s. The state may bring in some loony rules of writing name boards in local language etc, but it cannot stop me from naming a place what I want.
Vandalising book shops, sweet shops, railway offices – all these drive us into hating the behaviour of these goons – whom I ideologically support but not their actions. Even I agree Laloo is misusing railways as his personal fiefdom and planting all Biharis. But, the way of tackling it is through law or probably civil disobedience [as stated by Keshav] instead of sending people to destroy places or threaten people.
Friends,
You are not reading my posts or reading them only selectively. I have written:
No right thinking person would support anybody indulging in vandalism and violence…
and
The above and the previous post of course should not be mis-constructed as a judgment on the name change, why do these intellectually disabled extortionists forget that there is Sindh in our National Anthem* and Gandhar in Mahabharat, Panini composed his Ahstadhyayi near Atak** on the banks of the Indus, yes the same Atak beyond which Raghunathrao carried the Zari Patka of the Marathas.
Why can we not have a hunderd places in Mumbai calling themselves Karachi this and Karachi that?
Please read carefully before posting comments.
Finally, we arrive at the last refuge of the scoundrel
Long- long ago, when I started following this blog, there was a sense of blasphemous disbelief among the Armed Forces’ officers about what was been written about them by their fellow countrymen. Was it a cross border conspiracy? Were these people paid agents, hired to demoralise the forces? Could they be the disgruntled and jealous elements among the IDSE and other government services?
Any attempt to invoke the compassion and gratitude of the bloggers by listing the achievements in hostile areas and examples of patriotism were put down by quoting Samuel Johnson-
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
Well, maybe we had been left behind along with the hostiles in a time warp while the nation had moved ahead on the back of tatas and Infosys and satyams and wipros and the true Indian was now a global citizen. With 1st world lifestyle and values, seamless national boundries and an opinion on all issues under the sun.
So, I surfed for that bloke, Samuel Johnson, to get into his mind and to see what could have made him pronounce that damning quote of his-
Because common sense would tell us that the large refuge of the scoundrel would be in a jail cell after an abject shameless act such as stealing the shareholders’ money or after targetting the livelihood of the non voting minority to score political points .
Lo and behold!
Link
So can we now add to the patriotism quote , “such as Edmund Burke?” or “Such as Thakerey?”
@Yogesh
It is a pity that you should call showing a mirror as blind foolishness. What you call “neutered bull” is the nature of worker in the entire nature, yes, including the neutral working bees. Why is the local not able to work like that? Why is he not able to provide better resourcefulness to an employer like the so called neutered bull? It is a malaise across the nation. Any youth who gets “kaalej ka degree” considers himself to be fit only to earn millions till he is in his home town. Moment he gets out of his town, he is the neutral worker bee.
The extra sobriquets that you mention come with the territory. How well this person can be utilised by employer or the neta is entirely a different story. This does not mean that someone will start beating these workers and start shooing them away. I am sure you belong to the same state where you see so many ills brought on by immigrant and by the local alike. Other than calling other people blind fools, what have you done to improve the lot of your homeland? Why do you think that only you are able to see beyond your nose? If you disagree with what i have written, please do so, but do not claim intellectual propriety for yourself by calling others as fools.
I wonder where to line up for the license to call some people hard working and smart, and paint others (as a corollary) lazy and dumb.
Is it available on line? I hope the system of payment is cash on delivery, I do not have a credit card to make an online payment.
I am so sorry, I should have obtained such a license first.
All one can say about the episode” Unless politicisation of crimnals or crimnalisation of politiccs” which ever way it is viewed, is stopped, these kind of happenings will keep occuring. It has been happening in State after State with the citizens, being the victims always. How strong is the resolve of the countrymen & the politicans on this facet would indicate whether this will continue or will we see decent politics.
The voters have a larger role to play in this & it is upto them to spread the word for an end to such happenings, irrespective of the party that indulges in such activities, there will be no peace.
We must be Indians first & regional entities thereafter, if this is adopted as a PUNCH LINE accross the nation we may be able to redeem/ stop the rot in the coming yrs.
This is a good news that they have changed the name of sweet shop after Shri Krishna.
Next they should change name of India to Hindusthan officially.
This is healthy and positve change for the country.
Well done.JAYA HIND,JAYA HINDUSTHAN.
[...] Unless the opportunity cost of using violence as an intimidatory tool, and indeed cheap publicity is sufficiently high (it seems the media was informed in advance of the impending assault), incidents like Malegaon will continue to happen. Why, Mr Thackeray with his small band of goons is current engaged in such monumental tasks as renaming sweet shops in Mumbai while the police advices hapless shop owners to cooperate. [...]
Yogesh Jayant Khandke said:
“I am so sorry, I should have obtained such a license first.”
Dear friend, you already hold that license, the license to call others fool and since you can call anyone a fool, rest all is easy.
Now, pun apart, i did not mean to hurt your sensibilities. If i did, i can only apologize. All I wanted was to put across my views; if you disagree with them, do so, but do so without being rude. Thanks.
@pragmatic
My last two posts were off topic. Apologies for turning your space into a personal thingie.
@Yogesh
The debate is much larger. What is at stake here are fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution and the idea of India as our forefathers saw it and as we educated citizens want it for our children.
To relegate it to just a problem of politics or law and order or hooliganism or individual traits is missing the trees for the woods. Let me elaborate.
What one fears is if militant regionalism is again eventually going to tear us apart into small kingdoms as was during the days of the British Raj?
What also worries me is that it is these same religious “senas” who double up as custodians of our morals too. A “Sena” is roughly translated into a “Lashkar” and a “sainik” is called a “jehadi” in another language we are all too familiar with.
Would you and me want our daughters and sisters moving about with long veils and confined to the house? In fact our rural areas have just about broken free from those mindsets!
And Thackrey can throw all the “bhaiyaas” into the Arabian Sea to much applause, next will be the Muslims on the agenda perhaps and more gratitude from those leftover…and will it stop then? Or will the self styled custodians find another someone who is less of a native? Maybe a Ratan Tata next?
Reminds me of someone called Adolf Hitler.
Let’s not argue about the symptoms nor blame everything on poor politics or hooligans. The underlying sickness and its implied threat is very different. These are the true anti-nationals we fail to recognise.
These “senas” not the “lashkars” will be what ends the idea of India/Bharat we dream of (unless our dream is to go back a 100 years to status quo as we were under another “Raj” – the British one).
Only a resident (as per the statutory definition) of Jammu and Kashmir can buy land and immovable property in the state.
There are similar provisions in the north-eastern states, and Andaman and Nicobar.
In Maharashtra you can buy tribal land only if you yourself are a tribal or give an equal area of land elsewhere in return.
In Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal the new hot destinations for industries because of the tax holiday’s they offer, all jobs are to be routed through the state employment bureau.
Even in the EU a non EU worker can be hired only if the employer proves that a local was not available.
There are affirmative action measures of various types which have been enforced by the Central and State government regarding gender, disability, caste, minority status, sports achievement, ex-servicemen, freedom fighters (wards) etc.
The purpose of starting a factory or any other establishment is (apart form the obvious profit to the promoter) development of persons where the establishment is located. This can be both direct and indirect.
Since independence there are many areas where the above has not happened, which has bred movements like:
Naxalites in Central India: the mineral and forest resource rich areas of Madhya Pradesh (and Chattisgadh), Jharkhand, Orissa, the Telangana region of AP and the eastern districts of Maharashtra.
The various movements in Assam and the north – east.
Do you think that the Bengalis are fools to have kicked the Tatas and their little devil the Nano out of Singanur.
Remember the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the tribals lost their lands, their livelihood their language their culture to fatten oil barons in the state hundreds of kilometers downstream.
If you can understand we need participatory and sustainable development that works up from a sound foundation, not the trickle down theory; remember what a little bespectacled bald man wearing a loin cloth and carrying a stick said about the future of India?
Mr Khandke,
Truly appreciate yourconcern about the state of Mumbai’simmigrant population. Similar is the scene is almost all urban metros of the country. Arvind Adiga describe Delhi and Gurgaon similarly in White Tiger.
The fact is that we as Indians have a dangerous insensitivity to human issues. A decent human being would have at least resigned in shame if someone was murdered in the process of collecting bribes for her birthday celebrations.
Though I belong to the North of India but I have decided to settle in the south because of cultural issues. There is lack of respect for the law, the womenfolk, the neighbours, the customers and what have you.
We are in a dangerous morass of ‘existential’ effort up here. There is no hope for the teeming masses of the BMARU states unless there is visionary leadership that changes the culture of these states. It requires efforts in education, legislative and judicial reforms, police and land reforms etc etc.
I do not see the situation turning in my lifetime atleast. Such is the poverty and want in the rural India. Schools don’t function, teachers take their salaries and scoot for an entire month. The recent floods in Bihar were a totally avoidable consequence of administrative apathy and inadequate liaison between departments.
The scene is really grim and states like Maharashtra with more or less law abiding citizens and higher standards of decency and therefore prosperity will have to continue to bear the brunt of immigration from the hapless people from the BMARU states that are in the grip of a multi-decade problem of misgovernance.
The only thing we can do is to wait for all the malevalent politics to play out in these states. After a great deal of political churn will these areas look up.
It is a shame but…. is’nt that why we are called a subcontinental nation. Assimilation of society will take far longer than the 60 odd years we have given the country. In 1 to 200 years, this country will surely be great.
So wait
Dear Jo and other friends,
You are right about the existential attitude. We are in the grip of a robber economy. We are all responsible.
A small example, hundreds of acres of mill lands, which were bought for a pittance, were allowed by the authorities to be sold for profit for private use. The government could very well have taken over (for a fair compensation) all the land and given Mumbai its badly wanted green and open public spaces.
But the robbers who govern us could only think of loot.
Hope that is what sustains all of us! Hope of better governance. Hope of rule of the law. Hope of participatory democracy. Hope of just and equitable distribution of resources. Hope of sustainable and an ecology sensitive development.
We shall overcome! One day!
I have not read “The White Tiger”, to be frank had never heard of it, live in a very Philistine world. I checked a few reviews on the net, to me the book looks like another bloody way of selling India’s poverty and despair. Here is a reader’s comment on one of the reviews.
Please replace the word “lowly Bihari” with anybody unfortunate who cannot get a fair price for his labour.
We have a few filmy types who go about “Zopadpatti Bacho Andolan”, I wonder why we cannot do away with all Zopadpattis, why not demolish these wretched dwellings a hell on earth, and make a little room here and there and build houses with better ventilation, plumbing and sanitation. Not for free. Not the Slum Rehabilitation Racket, but the residents paying rent for the land and maintenance. You will ask how a poor man can afford to pay a rent. Well there should be no pockets of this mind numbing and dehumanizing squalor in Urban India, the sponge absorbs the wealth of India and squeezes it into its pocket. The rent should be paid by the employer, and if the man is self-employed he pays it and adds its cost to what ever he does.
Does this sound impractical, think about it? Why should a majority of the workforce live in wretchedness to subsidize the cost of its services to those who buy it from them?
URL of review: http://www.rsatya.in/?p=82
The comment:
When a book becomes famous, the collective intelligence of its readers puts more meaning in it then was perhaps originally intended by the author. Having read the book soon after the release, I found the most striking-xxx severennce with his motherland and the family as the cost of a decent life in Bangalore.
We all nurture a prejudice against the “lowly biharis”. The same people who make our city life so affordable- ironing our clothes, washing our cars, driving our cars and autos, guarding our malls, keeping our apartmrnts safe and clean. They even construct our roads, and the buildings we live in. And above all they help all our entrepreneurs get richer by providing them with cheap labour -widening their profit margins.
Time we started giving these guys more respect.
Mr Khandke
I too found Adiga’s book quite shocking, and no, he is not seeing India with coloured lenses. The reviewer is wrong in saying that he was prejudiced against the Biharis.
He has written really good story – just happens to be about Bihar for some part of it.
You must read it if you lay your hands on it.
Jo I must first read, don’t know when that will happen though, I did not say he looks at India with a coloured lens, you must have seen beggars with deformity or injuries, some even shake their rotten limbs to stir the maggots that infest them in order to attract attention and gain sympathy, most Indian writers do that to sell India’s despair to the world, because even this side of the Chandrayan it is an India inhabited by cows and people who starve not eating them that sells to the West. A perception of conceit and snobbery.