A report on Shobhaa De’s tete-a-tete with Devil’s Advocate Karan Thapar woke me up from my nightly slumber with a sudden shock. I will be lying if I say that I was not surprised to hear Shobhaa sympathising with the ideals Raj Thackeray stands by. She said that she does not approve of his methods but yes, Mumbai jobs should be given to Mumbaikaars first and then to the immigrants.
A very strong approach from a woman who is known as much for her broadminded chutzpah as much as for her sexy sarees and the endless kids. I don’t know, I did try to look at the situation from De’s POV but I am afraid I could not see any sense in it! For once, I can’t understand why a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai is being divided into water tight compartments? I am a half-Marathi and ‘malaa Marathi yaet nai (I can’t speak Marathi). Is that a crime? My father’s army job never had us in our native state and so my strangeness with the language.
Coming back to what I was saying. India is a HUGE country with approximatley 20 languages and more than 100 dialects; plus the religions, regions and customs diivide us endlessly. Perhaps that is why the constitution of India chose Hindi as the national language (after all, Indians from different parts of the country needed to communicate with each other) and gave us freedom to work and live anywhere we liked within the national bounadries. So, please tell me why do we ask for preferences now? Why is talking in Hindi such a crime? Where are the days when we though of being an Indian first and then a Marathi, Himachali, South Indian….The already divided India is further being chopped into micro units that will not survive and flourish for long other than providing fodder for the netas and their pointless strategies to gain political mileage.
Can anyone tell me, what does Delhi stand for? What is its mother tongue? Who are the natives? You take a city like Tokyo for example. 90 per cent of the Japanese population lives and works there. No body segregates on the basis of the region or area that he or she comes from. Then why are we splitting up Mumbai?
I am disappointed in De. I feel the whole issue is like the demand for reservation for Sc/ST in educational institutions. The best qualified should be given the spot. If a Marathi farmer feels that it is below his dignity to look for Class 4 or Class 5 jobs then why blame the North Indian who is just a second choice.
My call is : Let’s please live to the ideal of ‘Unity In Diversity’.
Posted by Saba on October 27, 2008 in News + Politics · 4 Comments
Shobha De’s comments do come as a surprise. Migration for livelihood or education or for better opportunities in life is happening all over the world. This is part and parcel of globalisation process. One can’t set back all clocks and trends…this will lead to utter chaos…
I would like to ask Shoba: If Mumbai belongs to Marathis, Punjab belongs to Sikhs and Gujarat is occupied with Gujaratis then what Does India stands for?
Plainly, it is a tough situation of identity crisis and nothing else.
Shobha de is totally right.
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Perhaps that is why the constitution of India chose Hindi as the national language (after all, Indians from different parts of the country needed to communicate with each other)
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The constitution doesn’t say any thing about the national language.
Neither the Constitution of India nor Indian law specifies a National language. Article 343 of the constitution specifies that the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. Article 354 specifies that the legislature of a State may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the Language or Languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State.[3] Section 8 of The Official Languages Act of 1963 (as amended in 1967) empowers the Union Government to make rules regarding the languages which may be used for the official purposes of the Union, for transaction of business in Parliament, and for communication between the Union Government and the states.[4] Section 3 of G.S.R. 1053, titled “Rules, 1976 (As Amended, 1987)” specifies that communications from a Central (Union) Government office to a State or a Union Territory in shall, save in exceptional cases (Region “A”) or shall ordinarily (Region “B”), be in Hindi, and if any communication is issued to any of them in English it shall be accompanied by a Hindi translation thereof.