Mumbai is in news again. For wrong reasons. It has emerged as a promising battleground for all ambitious politicians from regional as well as national parties. Is Mumbai going the Kashmir way? Is another north-eastern India in the making? Is India disintegrating? We may like India to stand united, we may like India to be a unitary state, but the problems are there and we can hardly wish them away.
What Makes Mumbai Unique
Mumbai, founded in 1672, is the second most populous city in India and the country's chief principal west seaport. Mumbai's prosperity is largely due to its natural harbour supported with rail, road, communication and an international airport. It is a major port of call for European and American vessels and handles over 40% of India's trade. Mumbai is the largest cotton textile milling centre in India.
The confluence of varied currents and cross-currents has given Mumbai a unique position of being the most cosmopolitan city in the country. The population comprises people of Koli, Bhandari, Indo-Aryan, Parsee, Jewish, Muhammadan, Arab, Portuguese, Armenian, English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh origin. Mumbai has developed into India's commercial capital with several leading financial, industrial and commercial centres located in this vibrant city.
Mumbai is the financial capital, the most glamorous city, the bubbliest city of the country today! The city has been built by Indians from all communities and regions with the obvious advantage of the natural factors like its location and weather etc.
Despite challenges of various kinds like overloaded infrastructure, communal riots and recent terrorist attacks, the city has preserved its unique cosmopolitan nature. In the face of every onslaught, natural or made, Mumbai has shown the world its resilient, undaunted spirit.
Danger Looming Large
But, the city seems to be in serious trouble if the politicians, cutting across party lines, have their say. Bent upon making Mumbai an akhara, eying their respective vote banks, not just in Maharashtra, but all over India, are once again playing their divisive politics.
Nationalists must rise to the occasion and ensure that the nasty intentions of these politicians are exposed before they harm national integrity further for their petty selfish motives. Media too must resist adding fuel to fire in national interest, howsoever tempting it might look for getting TRP or readership.
The Problem
It would be foolhardiness to think that everything is fine in Mumbai and some miscreants have succeeded in creating the hue and cry out of nothing! The problem is not imaginary.
A common citizen of Mumbai wants an end to his daily woes. Cracking infrastructure, narrow roads, local trains overloaded with people with hardly a space to breathe, scarcity of water, ‘Best’ buses not longer so, sky rocketing rentals, soaring prices of essential commodities, unemployment and deteriorating law and order are but some of the problems a common Mumbaikar is faced with. Public is with whichever party can lure it with an end to its miseries. It is not very difficult to make innocent people believe that the cause of all their miseries is the influx of people from other parts of the country; that if non-Marathas go back to their respective native places, all the problems of Mumbaikars will be resolved.
The way the problem is being mishandled by all concerned the problem may soon grow to a magnitude which may be difficult to contain. It is not an issue between Shiv Sena and MNS, or Shiv Sena and Congress. Nor is it between Raj and Lalu, or Udhav and Rahul. It is not even between a Marathi and non Marathi.
Are the problems of Mumbai different from those faced by a citizen of another part of the country? The whole nation is afflicted with the same or similar problems! The fact is this is in search of a solution to the everyday problems that a common man from other parts of India moves towards Mumbai, or for that matter, a metropolitan city or a city with better opportunities.
Even if the non-Marathis are ousted from Mumbai, the problems may not solve. Even if some are, partially, problems of different natures may emanate. After all, non –Marathis are not responsible for the communal riots or the terrorist attacks the city faced. Nor are they responsible for natural calamities. With or without non-Marathis, these and many other hardships will continue to be there in the life of Mumbaikars as well as in the lives of their fellow Indians elsewhere in the country.
Mumbai is not the only city in India, facing problems due to overburden on its resources. According to the Forbes magazine, Mumbai and Delhi are among the 25 dirtiest cities in the world while Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore are among the 20 densest cities of the world. Even Sukinda in Orissa and Vapi in Gujarat are among the 10 most polluted places globally.
Living in a dense place affects quality of living, unless you have loads of money and the place is gentrified like Tokyo and New York, the magazine commented. Dense is, however, a relative term. "A Mumbai native visiting New York is bound to feel like a New Yorker vacationing on a Wyoming dude ranch," it added.
Let us identify the problem then. The problem is lack of infrastructure. The problem is lack of opportunities, a word read and heard by everybody in India but seen only in select cities. Who wants to leave his or her native place and lead a life away from dear ones, full of hardships and humiliation? One is forced to so.
Beware of ‘Leaders’
Despite India having the second largest number of billionaires in the world the masses are fighting for basic infrastructure, food, clothing, education, housing and a respectful life. A pity indeed! And the politicians who are responsible for this mess are still leading and misleading the common man! We still call them leaders and follow them!
We have not been able to resolve the Kashmir imbroglio ever since independence. Despite spending a fortune and losing umpteen lives of our jawans as well as innocent people, a solution to Kashmir problems remains a distant dream. Despite continuous deployment of sizable forces we saw nationalist Indians being butchered and ultimately forced to leave their motherland. Despite having rounds and rounds of peace talks initiatives of myriad nature we failed to get them reinstated.
We still learnt no lessons. We continue to take things casually. We allow problems to grow to alarming proportions and then surrender. We allow secessionist forces to gather, to strengthen themselves and even when things look beyond control we continue to ‘hope’ and handle them superficially, as if to gain time.
We have seen local politicians of places like Kashmir converting ‘a paradise on earth’, into a living hell. We have seen national politicians of India failing miserably in their duty of preserving the unity and integrity of India and getting its people the basic rights and amenities. Should we still look towards them and wait for some good days? Should we keep ourselves busy in chanting ‘hum honge kaamyaab’ and ‘mera bharat mahaan’ while they keep befooling us and amassing wealth?
We are the world’s largest democracy. We are one of the oldest civilisations of the world. We have a glorious past. We need to lead the so called ‘leaders’. We need to be guarded against playing in the hands of who are using us and the national resources for their vested interests.
Are Mumbai and Kashmir Issues Alike?
But not all the problems can be equated, however. Nor can there be a common solution to all the problems. While the problem of Kashmir is predominantly political and dates back to pre-independence, the north-eastern problem grew in independent India and had more economic than political reasons. The problem of Punjab was the result of unseasoned steps of some greedy politicians, cutting across party lines and had no roots in the society. That is the reason why it could be tackled with whatever means and whoever taking its credit. Not all the state related issues are secessionist or even separatist. Some are economic and some are mere creations of some petty politicians.
The present Mumbai problem cannot be equated with Kashmir, as some politicians and their misguided followers are trying to project with their petty selfish motives. Some politicians started it with an eye on their vote banks. Other politicians joined in not to be left behind.
Patriotic Maharashtra
Insofar as Maharashtra is concerned, it has had a glorious past. Marathas are no less nationalists than people of any other state. They were Marathas who went as far as to Panipat to fight the Afghans in order to save their motherland. Even later, in 1803, they fought the British near Delhi, Aligarh and Agra. A misguided action by a handful of people is only an exception and should be treated like that.
The song of non-Marathas sacrificing their lives for fighting terrorist attack on Mumbai, being orchestrated by some is also ill placed. It was the great service to their motherland, done by great Indians, ever to be remembered and honoured by all Indians. That is it! Any attack on any part of the country will be fought by all Indians, together, ever!
Friends and Foes of Maharashtra
The activists leading the drive to oust non-Marathas are doing the greatest disservice to the state and its culture. Even if they succeed in their ill-conceived drive, they will not win. Sooner or later, the people so ousted will get rehabilitated somewhere. Those ousted from the erstwhile Pakistan, have got settled in India. Many of them are flourishing today. Those ousted from Kashmir have also got settled by now. See the fate of Pakistan and Kashmir today.
Shrills of ‘Amchi Mumbai’ is driving investments towards Gujarat. In a year when both the states are celebrating their golden jubilee, Maharashtra is trying to slam the doors on ‘outsiders’ while its neighbouring state is welcoming investment with open arms with its ‘Swarnim Gujarat’ campaign!
People have already started moving out of the city. Along with the Bihari labour and taxi drivers, people in respectable positions have also started having a gagging feeling in the city. Many people associated with film-industry have already expressed their intentions of moving out.
In addition to Mumbai, India has three more film cities, viz., Chennai, NOIDA near Delhi and Ramoji Film City of Hyderabad, the latter being the largest in India. Film studios exist in cities like Bangalore and Kolkata too. Alternatives to Mumbai film city already exist. If Mumbai continues to be a disturbed city, all these forces look bent upon to make, filmmakers already have alternatives.
Being the financial capital and the most glamorous city, Mumbai is the most happening place in the country. So far regarded as the country's busiest airport, Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has slipped to the second spot, behind Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), with the number of air traffic movements (ATM) it handles dipping from a daily high of 720 flights last year to 650 this year.
Mumbai has a 110 km long coastline out of the 7517 km long coastline India can boast of. Mumbai, thus comprises 1.46% of India’s total coastline. In other words, India can develop 68 cities like Mumbai along its coastline, though, being a peninsula, Mumbai has a distinct advantage of being a natural harbour.
The Hope
Agitation or no agitation, things always change. Necessity is the mother of invention. With more and more people getting attracted towards big cities, these cities are expanding. New cities are emerging. Small towns are developing into cities and big cities turning into metros. There is need to speed it up.
There is a good news which thanks to media, got lost in the crime news and more important (!) news like injustice meted out to Pakistani players. India and Japan have signed agreements to build eco-friendly cities along the Rs.3,60,000 crore Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor (DMIC). 24 new eco-friendly townships would come up on this corridor. The project will help in faster movement of goods through the corridor and will generate employment, infrastructure and will have a huge multiplier effect for wealth generation.
The 1,483-km Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor will cross six states —Delhi and the national capital region, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana. The project is expected to finish by the year 2017.
The Government of India, the State governments and the Planning Commission need to work in close coordination and ensure that the project is completed by the deadline. The good news is that Japan wants to showcase the DMIC as a model not just for India, but the whole world.
The good or bad fortune does not come for ever. History records our character on the basis of how we deal with it. It is for Marathas with a glorious past to decide whether to go down in history as nationalists as ever, or as people who bowed down to adversities. With the first option comes prosperity with glory while the second option leads them to a forgettable past.
