http://ibnlive.in.com/news/devils-advocate-shobhaa-de-on-mumbai-vs-bombay/76806-3-p0.html

Karan Thapar: Let’s come to the two big issues he has taken up in – as some would say – exaggerated way while some would say in a focused way. First, the people who live in Mumbai should speak Marathi. Do you agree with that?

Shobhaa De: Well, if you go to West Bengal, Karan, do you hear anything but Bengali being spoken? Does anyone mind? You go to Karnataka; do you hear anything but Kannada being spoken? If you go to Tamil Nadu, do you hear anything but Tamil being spoken? So in that sense, may be a disconnect is happening in Mumbai. People think Mumbai belongs to all of India and therefore not parochially bound.

Here comes another lady who truly supports Raj Thackeray-iism…I thought Shobha De speaks her mind and speaks sense and justified. Little did I know that after all she is a hypocrite in true sense. Few weeks ago, I had read her interview with Raj Thakeray in Pune Times… where she had interrogated him on the whereabouts of the latest North Indian bhagaao andolan or whatever …and now with this interview she sounds so sympathetic and supportive towards him. All these years Shobha did not feel that Maharashtrians should fight for their rights…or the outsiders should speak local languages and stuff like that but over the night her posture has changed towards regionalism. Her bhakti towards Marathi Manus have generated profusely.

“Shobhaa De: When you have slogans written all over the walls in Mumbai saying, ‘UP hamari hai, ab Maharashtra ki baari hai’ (UP is ours, now for Maharahtra), I would love to know if Maharashtrians were to go to UP and write Maharashtra is ours, UP is next , how would the response be? Would the politicians be passive? Would they think of it as a little in-joke they are playing with locals or would they feel somehow offended and threatened. I think what was a great challenge. It was said to provoke and it did provoke.”

Where does the comparison come from…?? That if Marathis are being treated badly elsewhere it’s lawful to reciprocate the same way?? I mean I am sorry if this is her idiocracy…towards innocent individuals! Does it in any way solve the problem…? I am concerned how Raj Thackerays and Shobha De’s of the world are working on the political and media front …when they make distinctions on the basis of states… in the so called secular and democratic country.

It’s really disheartening to see educated and cosmopolitans having views of these kinds and also the fact is slightly indigestible for me to read that she too believes it should be mandatory to learn the local language wherever we are residing…I have one question to ask her if she is in any way trying to change the civilian’s right??? Being an Indian first we better learn to speak in Hindi…I wish they had raised the same hue & cry for hindi not being used so often…considering it to be our national language. If our leaders choose to divide our people on the basis of regions then am afraid where the country is heading towards. Learning local language should be taken up out of sheer convenience for easy communication and not as a strict law or compulsion to be able to get some identity in the state.

Earlier it was between Hindus and Muslims …now its Marathis and UPiites…and tomorrow it would be between  “galis” and “nukkads” which would eventually bring more Raj Thackerays in the world struggling somewhere to fight for their OWN space. Oblivious of the fact that in the whole political scenario pointlessly a common man gets ripped apart & further everyone gets enough masala to write and read upon.

Raj Thakeray..?? Who is he?

http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/rajdeepsardesai/1/52784/an-open-letter-to-raj-thackeray.html

Rajdeep, for a change i’m glad to see some media personnel bashing this Raj Thakeray…! And wow…again for a change someone from the media has highlighted something relevant and different from the so called masala news that spalsh the news channels every now & then, eventually reasoning with us saying that’s what the public demands.

Anyway…coming to Raj Thakeray…Who is he??? Is he trying to create some kind of history in this century??? Why is he trying to be the sole savior for maharashtrians??? Is he some kind of Prophet…or messenger of God who has appeared to bring in law and order and fight for the rights of civilians?…Or is he trying to claim  that the current Maharastrian Government is incapable of the state’s developments…?

Am I wrong in assuming that its a constitutional right given to every Indian that they are free to move around anywhere in the country and work freely anywhere? How can the government tolderate this and be a dumb spectator? Should we understand that they too comply with Raj? I mean is he more fearsome and intimidating and powerful…than the prime-minister or president of our country?

Have read the recent comments on this post too…assuming they are from the younger generation…I am really sad to read their opinions who feel Raj is doing a great job to make the maharashtrians feel proud of.. AN EYE FOR AN EYE has never been the solution for anything…it can only make everyone blind…that’s my answer to all those people here who have tried to weigh the sufferings and have made an effort to compare it with Bihar and Assam and Tamil Nadu and whatsoever….killing innocent lives or harassing them can never be justified…they are no less than an illiterate’s disposition.

I mean…in India instead of focusing on terrorism, poverty, child labor, dowry deaths, rapes & murders, corruption, genocide, female-foeticide, communal disharmony etc… our so called political leaders are stressing on marathis vs. biharis? I really feel ashamed that where India has so much to deal with, they are still stuck with regionalism & communalism to create furor to attract nothing but political attention.