If crores of rupees can be spent on 'buying' cricketers to sell brand names, surely similar crores can be spent on working out innovative ideas meant for the uplift of the "downtrodden whose only fault is that they were born in the wrong place at the wrong time. A prosperous North India means a powerful India. We then don't have to engage in petty quarrels over Chhat pujas and make childish and provocative references to the poor from the North.

Is the Planning Commission at all aware of that is going on in our expanding cities? Has anyone in power taken cognisance of the recent events in Mumbai when Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) goons went on a rampage against so-called 'outsiders'-mostly north Indian labourers, smashing taxis, beating up construction workers all hailing from north India, driving hundreds of them to desperation?

In recent weeks countless among them have left Mumbai, Pune, Nasik and other cities in Maharashtra, seeking security in their own rural homes in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere, penniless and starving. What sort of humanity is this? And what sort of planning does the UPA Government have in mind? The anti-North Indian mindset encouraged by the MNS got reflected in Bihar when the Governor of the state, R.S. Gavai, a Maharashtrian by birth, was hooted by Opposition MLAs when he was delivering the customary inaugural address at the opening of 40-day Assembly session. If this sort of thing catches on, Maharashtra will demand only a Maharashtrian as Governor as would Tamil Nadu a Tamilian and West Bengal a Bengali making a mockery of our Constitution and dismantling the essential unity of the country. The Supreme Court on February 22, sternly opposed sectarian politics practiced by regional parties such as the MNS and Shiv Sena, strongly disapproving the son-of-the-soil theory which, said the Court, could lead to the balkanisation of India. That needed to be said.

But what needs to be done is to make an objective inquiry into the reason behind the anti-North India riots and suggest solutions. Three factors, in this connection, need to be taken into account. One, the rapid and unplanned development of cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. Two, the economic imbalances between the advanced and backward states and three, the growing fear among locals that the influx of 'outsiders' would deprive them of their livelihood in their own linguistic spheres. In the mad pursuit of a 'Shining India', uncontrolled and unregulated market-led development has led to structural chaos in cities like Mumbai, with people from backward regions surging towards what they believe are golden opportunities in a city accustomed in the past to a culture of cosmopolitanism. This cosmopolitianism had grown at an even and acceptable pace, especially at the middle-to-upper class level, posing no threat to prevailing culture.

Unfortunately, the current surge has come at the middle-to-lowerclass level making the locals feel threatened. This has inevitably led to tension between regional identity and old-fashioned cosmopolitanism as was reflected in Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's remarks that he won't let Bihari workers do Chhat Puja at Chowpatty, and daring them to hold a similar mela in Chennai where an aggressive anti-Hindi leader, Karunanidhi holds away. It is wise to remember the linguistic chauvinism exists all over India and this has to be handled with care. Efforts should be made to see that as far as possible linguistic and cultural lines are not crossed. This calls for a major study of cities, their market-led development and apportionment of jobs along linguistic lines.

Mumbai has become too crowded than is good for it. There has to be an exodus of industry, enterprise and business, in order to maintain peace within its boundaries. Other centres of activity have to be consciously developed in uninhabitated areas where multi-culture sub-groups can thrive and live in contentment. Presently, it is claimed, migrants from the North account for between 30 to 35 per cent of Mumbai's population and the Congress recently mooted the idea of conducting the proceedings in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation in Hindi. That was a needless provocation. The suggestion, no doubt, was well meant but it was an uncalled for slap on the Marathi face.

Understandably the Shiv Sena leader demanded that the Congress should first introduce Hindi in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkota and Guwahati. One thing that we need to remember is that Indian society is still in a state of flux and it is downright silly to attempt to force the rate of change within it. Change has to come gradually imperceptibly. This second is that the problem of regional imbalances should be tackled as fast as possible. Why isn't Maharashtrian labour going to Patna or Gujarati labour to Hyderabad? The answer is simple: there is no surplus labour in Maharashtra looking for employment outside Maharashtra. This is not the case in most of the North Indian states. Bihari labour has even migrated to Jammu and Kashmir and is under constant threat from the locals. This is where the Planning Commission comes in: a conscious effort needs to be made to look into the economies of the northern states and the availability of employment opportunities at all levels.

How best can labour in north India be kept within the confines of north India or, for that matter, labour from north Karnataka kept engaged in north Karnataka? What industries need to be set, what commercial ventures need to be encouraged to keep North Indian labour confined within its own environment? What steps should be taken to attract capital to build new Mumbais in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar or Orissa where Maoists thrive on poverty and unemployment? What possibilities need to be explored to provide jobs for the jobless? What is the Centre doing, for example in the matter of linking of rivers? Reports are that the entire concept has been shelved for lack of cash. But just that one single project can provide jobs to millions, enabling North Indian labour to stay put in north India. India is a vast land and millions of acres still remain untilled and unproductive. What steps should the Centre undertake to bring such land under cultivation and thereby providing homes and livelihood to the uncared and unloved people? If the Planning Commission is impotent, then a party like the BJP must appoint its own Planning Commission and come out with brilliant ideas that are operative and life-sustaining. And in this, Private Enterprise also has a role to play.

If crores of rupees can be spent on 'buying' cricketers to sell brand names, surely similar crores can be spent on working out innovative ideas meant for the uplift of the "downtrodden whose only fault is that they were born in the wrong place at the wrong time? A prosperous North India means a powerful India. We then don't have to engage in petty quarrels over Chhat pujas and make childish and provocative references to the poor from the North. They may be poor and they may come from the North but they are all our people-a point worth making-and remembering. The world today is a global village. So is India.

Courtesy: Organiser, March 23, 2008