Saturday, November 1, 2008

Dilemma of the “Elite Marathi Manoos”


Shobhaa De expressed her tacit support for Raj Thackeray’s cause during her interview with Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate (IBN-CNN). This seems to be a depature from her earlier stand. Bharat Dabholkar too spoke in support of the cause on different TV channels. Is it suddenly fashionable to flash your Marathi identity? Or is it genuine concern for the not-so-privileged Marathi Manoos?



For decades, the EMM (Elite Marathi Manoos) has tried to blend in the “Cosmopolitan Bombay”. Switching to Hindi or English in public, so that he is not looked upon as “Ghati”. This “Accommodating Maharashtrian” never asserted his cultural identity in the capital of his own state! Shiv Sena was derided as “goonda party” and a distance was maintained… till Raj came in his new avatar earlier this year. Frankly, he is doing exactly what his uncle did… but seems to be getting tacit support from EMM which Thackeray Sr. didn’t!

With the MNS मंथन, Maharashtra has been churned and polarized like never before. Suddenly, EMM is forced to take sides… which he is not very comfortable doing! So you see him reacting the way Shobhaa De is… empathizing with the “cause” but not the “method”.

3M feels time will tell if Raj will be able to woo EMM enough to actually make him vote for the MNS…
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have seen Shobhaa De's interview on CNN IBN with karan thapar.. I strongly disagree when u say Shobhaa De she departed from her earlier stand ! Very Incorrect ! She did not oppose Raj Thackeray's stand before...Nor she does it today ! She did support whatever he and his party does.. Her point is THE SILENCE OF THE MARATHI INTELLECTUAL ON THIS ISSUE is going to be very harmful.. Hence She is speaking on these issues !

The implications of what Raj Thackeray is doing can be very disruptive for our country as a whole ! And hence, it is the responsibility of EMM to not get the general public misguided !

Anonymous said...

Please ignore my previous comment ! Spell Mistake !

I have seen Shobhaa De's interview on CNN IBN with karan thapar.. I strongly disagree when u say Shobhaa De she departed from her earlier stand ! Very Incorrect ! She did not oppose Raj Thackeray's stand before...Nor she does it today ! She did not support whatever he and his party does.. Her point is THE SILENCE OF THE MARATHI INTELLECTUAL ON THIS ISSUE is going to be very harmful.. Hence She is speaking on these issues !

The implications of what Raj Thackeray is doing can be very disruptive for our country as a whole ! And hence, it is the responsibility of EMM to not allow general public to get misguided !

BharGo said...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2788526.cms

This is her often quoted article where she slammed Raj... "This is Mumbai, meri jaan! Who cares where anyone comes from?"

This tone has certainly changed in the last 8 months!

Anonymous said...

>>So you see him reacting the way
>>Shobhaa De is… empathizing with the
>>“cause” but not the “method”

but that is what 3M is also doing.

BharGo said...

That is what majority of Maharashtra is saying... not just 3M!

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