Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Bombay First... Mumbai Second!


Joining Meghnad Desai in the “Separate Mumbai” campaign is Narendra Nair from Bombay First in today's Times of India Editorial (Mumbai)

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MAXIMUM CITY - Rescue Bombay by Narendra Nair

Images of Hemant Karkare donning what turned out to be ineffective headgear and bulletproof vest, preparatory to heading out to confront the terrorists at the Cama hospital, filled us with quiet pride. Smiling grimly, his body language indicated the confidence to go into the thick of battle and appreciation of the dangers ahead. Little did we know he would be gunned down minutes later. In consequence, those images have now become among the most heart-rending in recent memory. The BJP, the Senas and fanatic Hindu outfits who hailed him as a hero when hunting down Muslim terror outfits called him a traitor and other vicious names when he caught Hindus engaged in similar acts. The prospect of such brazenly bigoted people getting control of the country in the next election is scary in the extreme. So, before we sink once more into our standard attitude of apathy, there is one thing we must do. Urgently. Rescue Bombay city, the only international city we have in this country.


Bombay was, like the United States of America, made by migrants and achieved its international status on that account. Right now, Mumbai is one big slum; a narrow parochial identity has been forced upon it. Attempts to reduce it to just another linguistic region, where even vehicle number-plates are illegally and dangerously in Marathi — think how hard they are to decipher quickly in a hit and-run — are to belittle the history of this great city and to negate the contribution of its vast migrant army. It is the commercial capital of India, not just of Maharashtra alone. The city should therefore without delay be centrally administered, as many have suggested. The best Indian brains should be requisitioned to run this city and any political interference should be resisted and rebuffed as emphatically as possible. The prima donna Union home minister Shivraj Patil quit, inanely declaring, “It is a great burden off my shoulders”. Wrong. It is a great burden off our shoulders. As for Maharashtra’s comic — and thankfully former — deputy chief minister R R Patil, he casually ignored multiple warnings of terrorist attacks. When the warnings came true, he called the murder of innocents nothing more than a minor event inevitable to any big city. For that remark alone he should be ostracised. As for Bombay, let us hope that narrow-minded linguistic fanaticism will not hasten the obituary of what was once a great city.

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3M cant miss the YOU-BLOODY-GHATIS-CANT-RULE-BOMBAY attitude in this editorial! There is no denying that the city is going to the dogs... but this anti-marathi manoos attitude is going to add to the problems... 3M considers this viewpoint as much parochial as the self-appointed-guardians-of-Marathi-asmita!

24 comments:

rogermar said...

Made my blood boil, darn I hate these Maharshtrian haters.
As if number plates in Gujrati would be easier to read. Wish I could slap him, great work 3M

ecophilo said...

Well, piece of crap. Central administration will cure all ills eh? What is he smoking? Thats one aspect..

Coming to his plea of save Bombay, why only Bombay, we need to save the whole of India. By his logic let us handover the administration of India to the English...

Anonymous said...

Such statements are sure to push the fence sitters on Raj Thakre's side!

Anonymous said...

the problem of mumbai will not get soled by separating mumbai from maharashtra.those people which have started this foolish movement of separating mumbai don't know how people of maharashtra have battled against congress and Neharu for mumbai.so dont do such foolish things.otherwise common people of mumbai and maharashtra will show you the real power and strong movement of maharashtra and 'marathi manoos'

Anonymous said...

Where were you intelligent Mr.Narendra Nair when the issue of renaming Madras to Chennai came up ? It is because of people of this third degree sick mentality that this County cannot progress it should have over all these years.
Now when the time is when we all should be ONE and stand against the terrorism which has hit MUMBAI,you come up with such STUPID IDEAS.........SHAME ON YOU ....SHAME.......SHAME.......SHAME

Ashutosh Deshpande said...

Idiots are those who will seperate Mumbai from Maharashtra
Try seperating them, you wont stay till then...
Jai Maharashtra

Ameya Pawar said...

cheap stunt of publicity thats all i can say.

Anonymous said...

you madrasi hahahaha

madrasi madrasi madrasi go to madras and eat idaly dosa tie your lungi and @#$#$ off

Anonymous said...

Even i cant able to read JALEBI language in Madras...atleast u get hindi in Mumbai...by the way the no. r in Devanagari not in Marathi
which is indian lang. U loongi people dont even speak hindi...
We wlcome all indian here thats why suckers like u servive here...
your states dont have guts n manners to develop ur own city..
Mumbai named after MUMBA DEVI god.
i think ur son of angrez coz they dont called MUMBA AAI clearly
so they name...Bombay...think ur r one of their child...Angrez toh chale age pan tere jaise bohot chod gaye

Anonymous said...

i hate this maharashtrian haters..i respect tamilians a lot..even more than i can respect my own maharashtrian people..yeah their r few exceptions n my list starts with u now...its a rising publicity stunt this days u c.disrespect us n earn moolahs...if u hate maharshtrians such then y u 'worship' the superstar who was born a maharashtrian(shivajirao gaikwad aka rajnikaant)..although we never called him maharashtrian coz he belong to tamil nadu first.n IMO the ones who call mumbai as 'bombay' do nothing but respect the british era.r u one of those who respects the brutal british imperialism??

Ajay Menon said...

well i think the author has been been misquoted here in what he wants to convey through his write up.Mumbai has a lot of problems and it shall take time and a right govt. to atleast start with the process of clean up.
Coming back to the article,the writer has made a lot of valid points but also made points that shall hurt the sentiments of people.
If only he wasnt misinterpreted it would have been a great piece of work.
And whats wrong with the comments made about madrasis??
The bitch doesnt even know the difference between keralites and tamilians.And there is nothing in this world as madrasis.Its like Harry Potter for christs sake.Who allows these fuckers to even comment??

Anonymous said...

AJ, the word Madrasi is used here for the fucking bloggers like you .. every one knows to whom call keralites and to whom call tamilian

first upon there is no point in calling Bombay for Mumbai when the name is officially changed.. No one calls Madras for Chennai, remember.

secondly when entire nation is being victim of terrorism then how the hell separate Mumbai can solve the issue and make city safe?

blaming politicians, police or any community is the easiest thing to do at any place in world.. every media does it and people follow it.. The common sense is to start following rules and stop corruption.. No one has guts to do it, is any? Simple instance.. how many people follow signal while crossing road? no one even glance it whether its green or red. People are neither serious about there own safety nor others. There is no point in blaming system or govt. we are the system, they are one of us only.

Blogging on net won't solve problem, make a plan and come up with solution, entire Mumbai will support it.. and no more blame game please.

BharGo said...

Guys... please restrict yourself to logical argument! Abusive language is not entertained and such comments will be deleted in future.

Unknown said...

Mr. Nair is representing mentality, which is do not want Marathi Governance on Mumbai. May god give them some logical ability. Have they thought who will govern Mumbai after Marathis. They will be UP & Biharis. Mumbai is having 40% of marathi Population, 22% Hindi speaking, 18% Gujarati and rest of others. South Indians are not more than 3% each and accounting not more than 10% of the population. So hypothetically if marathi spared and every one else come togather they will elect a leader like Kripashankar Sinh or Abu Azmi who they think will be masiha of Mumbai !!
All marathis are damn bloody fool that the Mumbai is having the best city governance in India as compared to any Metro and Maharashtra which was at par with other states at the time of independence is accounting 15% of GDP( Mumbai is accounting only 1%) of India and having one of the highest per capita income ( triple the national average). And those smart & efficient leaders of other states sitting at centre can not even create job opportunities for their own people are dreaming to govern Mumbai. Mr. Nair think over what will happen to all mallus if gulf kick you off from there and all the states in India refused to accommodate you. Kerala is such a tiny state that it should have prospered much more than Maharashtra & per capita income should have been 50% more than Maharashtra. 9 like Goa has done – again Marathi governance). What other source of income you have there except Tourism. Haa and that too run on Marathi tourists ( at least 25 % more than any other group). So Mr..Nair don’t come under influence of that Times Group. They are the chronic marathi hateres. Apply your own wisdom before posting such articles.

Anonymous said...

Just have a look at other centrally administered states Bachi, Nair. Delhi where BMW and Bimaru culture merge to produce the crime capital of the world with rape, sexual harrassment, white collar crime, violent politics (remember 1984 when the Delhites slaughtered their fellow Delhiites by the thousands and not a single soul has been booked so far), corrupt advocates and lawyers, honor killings, killer buses and what have you.

Anonymous said...

Bhargo is right. Abuse is no substitute for logic and reasoned argument. Calling someone names does not enhance our own image a great deal. As for the criticism of the article in question, it seems to me that they are mostly tangential. I, like any Maharashtrian am proud to think of Mumbai as an integral part of Maharashtra and agree with many opinions expressed here that delinking Mumbai from the State will not solve the problems of this city. At the same time I also entirely agree that our city is one huge slum. Visitors to the city find it difficult to imagine that this city is supposed to be an international one. Few will disagree that Mumbai is one of the worst managed cities in the world. The raucous bigotry of those championing Marathi asmita are doing us no good and in fact are driving a wedge deeper between us and people from other parts of India. (Be honest. How many of you felt proud to see Raj Thackray viciously slash a cake made up as "BHAIYYA" with a sword? What kind of impression did it leave in your mind about the man? No Sir, he certainly does not represent me!)

Surely it is no one's argument that Mumbai should not have an international ethos and should be only one more exclusively linguistically defined town? The point about vernacular number plates is very valid. If you want to read the number in a hurry in a road accident how many will be able to figure out the number? And isn't it patently illegal to have them in designer shapes and vernacular artistry? To say that it is devnagri is to deliberately miss the issue. They should be in English in a standard size and font and not in devanagri or Gujarati, Mr Desai. I did not see the article saying that the number plates should be in Gujarati. You slap people who say things you don't agree with? Do people who disagree with you also slap you?
As for the argument that those who espouse the setting up of a professional body to manage this city is an attack on the Marathi manoos, it is quite absurd. I am as marathi a manoos as anyone else and I do not feel insulted on reading the article. As a matter of fact the article is very well expressed. And I don't think that it is anhyone's case that an all-India panel that will run the city will not include Maharashtrians. So why cry shrilly that such a demand is an attack on Maharashtrians or our language? Why do we become so paranoid and touchy about our language as though we are secretly ashamed of it? Marathi is a vibrant and rich language with an impressive cultural resonance as seen in our theater. We have scholars of note and stalwards like Vijay Tendulkar, PLD and so on. There is nothing therefore for us to take umbrage. Let us learn to take criticism better. I may not agree with the solution offered in the article but I think that it is extremely well written, is dignified and makes several pertinent points. And no, I do not think anything in it is against me or my fellow Maharashtrians or our rich language.

One final point. A large number of us who have been here over fifty years, still refer to our city as Bombay. In fact one has to remember to call it Mumbai when not speaking in Marathi. All of us are not against our State or the language? Bombay is what comes reflexly to mind and it is not an insult. And I am not saying this because I live in the US. I would urge my fellowmen to be measured and mature and fair in their responses and shed this hypersensitivity in looking for insults where none exist.

Sanjay Lele

BharGo said...

Mr. Lele… thanks for giving your views in such detail! 3M agrees and disagrees with you…

When Mr. Narendra Nair stresses that number plates are “dangerously in Marathi”, he is giving an elitist view… what if the person at the “hit and run” case does not know English? I agree with him that number plates in Marathi are illegal… and must be removed. Similarly, Shop boards that do not have name in Marathi are illegal according to the law of the land. And the law was made long before either of the “parochial senas” was born… But when the law is enforced, “Bombayites” cry foul! BTW a legally elected government passed a law to revert the city to its original name - MUMBAI… But Nair refuses to use anything “Marathi”.

As for Marathi Manoos being paranoid… there are historical reasons… Even after 48 years of formation of Maharashtra the blood of “Bombay Citizen’s Committee” flows in the veins of a section of our citizens… they believe that Maharashtra has “wrongly occupied Bombay”… best represented in a statement from Rohington Mistry’s book – “the bloody ghatis were flooding the place”!

Being “International” and “Capital of Maharashtra” are not mutually exclusive things… Mumbai can be both!

Anonymous said...

I think we should show all Indians the strength and will power of Marathi manus. We have ruled from Tanjore to Attac and Gujrat to Orissa. All people who want to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra are not aware of the maratha might . One call and all Marathas from Konkan and Desh will gather and kick all such people.It will take just few hours to throw all such people to the Sea.

Anonymous said...

I think we should show all Indians the strength and will power of Marathi manus. We have ruled from Tanjore to Attac and Gujrat to Orissa. All people who want to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra are not aware of the maratha might . One call and all Marathas from Konkan and Desh will gather and kick all such people.It will take just few hours to throw all such people to the Sea.---- Sic

I don't understand what are we fighting about?

The Maratha Might, The Sikh Might, The Jat Might, The Dogra Might....
What are you guys trying to prove?

See the Past and you would realize that the biggest enemies of our Country have been using the same divide and rule policy for years and i can tell you that they have been very successful....

Get over the Racial Supremacy of the Marathas, Sikhs, Jats, Dogras and remember that the person on the border who guards you does not care about which state you belong too or which language you speak, all he cares is for is the country called India.

So all of you haters and baiters Please get a life and realize that
we have far bigger problems to take care of - Poverty, Population and Illiteracy.

Read your History textbooks thoroughly and you will realize that neither the Marathas, Nor the Sikhs, Nor the Dogras, the Mughals, or the so called warrior clans could sustain the Empire that they created.... The Only reason was that they were fighting amongst themselves and were busy collecting revenue.....Voila the Englishman lands .... Conquers our land and rules for 250 years, taking away all the booty from the Colony, Naming our cities Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Cawnpore...

And 60 years after the white man leaves we are still fighting among ourselves trying to show that our race is better than the other race.

Shame on all of us!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

मुंबई ही महाराष्ट्राचीच होती,आहे,आणि यापुढेही राहणार.
मुंबईवर फक्त मराठी माणसाचाच हक्क राहणार.मुंबईची परप्रांतीयांमुळे आधीच वाट लागली आहे.मुंबईवर सत्ता महाराष्ट्रायीन लोकांचीच,थोडक्यात मुंबई मराठ्यांचीच.
मुंबईला वेगळ करण्याचा विचार देखील मनात आणलात
तरी गाठ मराठी माणसाशी आहे हे फक्त त्यांनी लक्षात ठेवाव.

Anonymous said...

मुंबई फ़क्त महाराष्ट्राचीच आहे जर कोणी तिला महाराष्ट्रापासून विलग करण्याचा प्रयत्न केला किंवा विचार जरी मनात डोकावला तर तिथेच अमराठी माणसांच्या रक्ताचे पात वाहतील

Anonymous said...

येथे पोलीस आमचे, राज्यकर्तेही आमचे, न्यायालयात जर गेलात तर न्यायाधीशही आमचेच आहेत

Anonymous said...

U NARROW MINDED Mr Black Narendra nair .... Dont be so concerned about Mumbai .... you blacks dont know what the word Maratha means .... look at u and ur southern states ...do u even care about speaking in hindi????...u people dont even even have respect for national language.... Its u and ur four southern states that should be separated from rest of India..... Dont even think of separating Mumbai.... Even ur coming generations wont be able to do it...

Kiranpal Singh said...

Cheap Marathi Mentality. You marathis are nothing. Wake up.

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