Where is India's civil society?
Where is India's civil society?
For several months now, Raj Thackeray and his MNS goons have been increasingly employing violent and divisive tactics to raise their own profile. They have been claiming victimization by "outsiders" taking away their opportunities and asserting senseless regional pride.
I certainly respect Raj Thackeray's right to have a crackpot opinion. Needless to say, I disagree with all the intimidation and threats of violence. People are losing their peace and lives because of the hate-filled atmosphere he has festered. The other day a young man was beaten to death in a local train in Mumbai, for being from North India.
There is a project named Door Step School (DSS) that Vibha supports. DSS targets children of migrant laborers, especially those who work in the construction industry. These laborers move from one construction site to another and take their families along with them. As a result, their children cannot go to school. DSS takes the school to them, by running "School on Wheels" (classrooms inside buses) programs in various construction sites.
In the month of April, after MNS started railing about North Indians taking away their jobs, there were several incidents of violence against North Indian workers in Maharashtra. A lot of them started leaving the state. Among them were a group of twenty two Bihari children in a construction site. They were preparing for their annual exams and they suddenly disappeared; one small flicker of hope in their lives blown out.
What concerns me even more than Raj Thackeray and the destruction he causes is the lack of any response from sane citizens of India. Maybe they are denouncing Thackeray, but I cannot hear it. Shouldn't they be drowning out his voice? Are there protest/solidarity rallies in Maharashtra or even in other cities? How powerful would it be for the Government of Tamil Nadu (or any other state) to issue a full page advertisement in Maharashtra's leading newspaper stating that the state and its citizens consider and treat people of all languages and regions as their own? I guess most states and parties in those states have been guilty of kindling divisiveness of their own, that they would have no moral standing left.
Where is India's civil society?
For several months now, Raj Thackeray and his MNS goons have been increasingly employing violent and divisive tactics to raise their own profile. They have been claiming victimization by "outsiders" taking away their opportunities and asserting senseless regional pride.
I certainly respect Raj Thackeray's right to have a crackpot opinion. Needless to say, I disagree with all the intimidation and threats of violence. People are losing their peace and lives because of the hate-filled atmosphere he has festered. The other day a young man was beaten to death in a local train in Mumbai, for being from North India.
There is a project named Door Step School (DSS) that Vibha supports. DSS targets children of migrant laborers, especially those who work in the construction industry. These laborers move from one construction site to another and take their families along with them. As a result, their children cannot go to school. DSS takes the school to them, by running "School on Wheels" (classrooms inside buses) programs in various construction sites.
In the month of April, after MNS started railing about North Indians taking away their jobs, there were several incidents of violence against North Indian workers in Maharashtra. A lot of them started leaving the state. Among them were a group of twenty two Bihari children in a construction site. They were preparing for their annual exams and they suddenly disappeared; one small flicker of hope in their lives blown out.
What concerns me even more than Raj Thackeray and the destruction he causes is the lack of any response from sane citizens of India. Maybe they are denouncing Thackeray, but I cannot hear it. Shouldn't they be drowning out his voice? Are there protest/solidarity rallies in Maharashtra or even in other cities? How powerful would it be for the Government of Tamil Nadu (or any other state) to issue a full page advertisement in Maharashtra's leading newspaper stating that the state and its citizens consider and treat people of all languages and regions as their own? I guess most states and parties in those states have been guilty of kindling divisiveness of their own, that they would have no moral standing left.
Where is India's civil society?