State Loyalties

Raj Thackeray recently vowed to kick North Indians out of Mumai/Maharashtra, HD Devegowda is supporting the thought of 30% reservation for the native Kannadigas in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu already has reservation for local Tamil population. The main reason behind all this madness……well no one is happy about the influx of people from various other Indian states into the more prosperous, urbane, opportunity struck cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai etc.

I’ve been reading about this and the most sad fact about the whole saga is that the youth of the nation has some very insane/childish thoughts on this topic. A bloke in Bangalore is just angry because North Indian people don’t want to learn Kannada but will insist on speaking in Hindi, and in another case, a person in Kolkatta is angry because it seems local customs and traditions are not valued by the non-bengali inter state immigrants.

I believe there are come contrasting points to look at the above mentioned situation:

a) The politicians are playing low-grade regional politics. The idea is to incite the frustration stored in the not so successful youth and use their pent up anger and frustration to stall the growth that is currently undertaking in urban India. The politicians have just one agenda and that is to sustain or regain power. Nonsensical politicians who are starved of ideas to keep their party alive plague Indian politics and igniting regional/communal politics is their last resort.

b) The unplanned growth in India has started to show its own problems. The state/central government are offenders of equal level as they have failed to provide basic infrastructure in smaller cities to enable industrial growth to happen there. Population moves where jobs move. A great example is Gurgaon which has turned into a haven for the service industry and now a big residential and commercial centre. It’s no more a case of a state being rich in natural resources or having favourable climatic conditions that will lead itself to prosperity. It’s about providing enough incentives and good infrastructure to lure global corporate to move next door. And, that is one of the more favourable solution for a equitable growth across the nation.

c) Infrastructure is shocking in some of the big Indian cities. Taking an example of Bangalore, it is a massacre on road during peak hours as the traffic barely moves and the public transport system is in shambles. It’s a fact that the big cities in India are facing a big influx but rather than creating a fuss about it, the government should be prepared to sustain this influx by all means. Remember, more the people: more collection for the state in taxes, more disposable income: more spending by people.

d) The last time I checked we in India were living in a democratic environment. We as Indians are proud of the Taj Mahal as much as we are proud of the Charminar or for that matter of the Khajuraho temples. Where does this thing about not respecting each others culture came about? India is known for its diversity and it seems it is at a larger risk than it ever was. So what if a North Indian doesn’t want to speak Kannada or doesn’t show up for the Durga Puja? Is your celebration going to be any smaller or is your life going to be altered in any sense? The culture carries on when it is imbibed by the young kids in the house, so go ahead and teach the kids the best of the religion and culture, and all the insecurities of the culture fading away will be gone.It is understandable that with the influx of people in certain cities, the cost of living including real estate prices have become astronomical. This again comes to the point of the unplanned growth that we as a nation are moving towards. A city like Hyderabad never loses power on any given day but the farmers in regional AP are committing suicide because of less power and water for their farms. Ask a young kid and he’ll have to thing twice to come up with the second largest city in Tamil Nadu or Karnataka. The government needs to work towards a sustainable growth across India with a focus on improving infrastructure and general living conditions.