Bihari Bihari Go away!

Thackrey’s are going back to their ugly basics due to lack of political agenda. And being an Indian (and a Bihari), this hurts.

Current aggression against Bihari’s and UP’ites in Mumbai is very saddening. More disheartening is the fact that no national leader other than Nitish Kumar and Mayawati has come against this strongly.

I am lucky to have spent considerable time in various big cities of India including Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ranchi, Delhi and economic heartland of Mumbai during last 10 years of my education and job. I’ve interacted with local people in all these places and to an extent, appreciate their pulse. At all these places I’ve not seen a clear case of discrimination or hatred but a subtle hint of protectionism is visible which for me is quite human. So what makes Mumbaikar’s agitate against my presence and not Bangalorian’s or Hyderabadi’s? Or is it just a matter of time and little ignition!

Last month we saw Delhi’s governor asking for ID cards for all residing there. The move was seen mostly against Bihari’s working in the state. He soon went back on his words after political outbursts. So, will it be suitable if all Bihari Taxi drivers in Mumbai, all Bihari rural workers in Punjab and Haryana, all road side operators and driver in Delhi and all software engineers in Bangalore and Chennai from Bihar go back to their own state!

I was watching “Lead India” show on Star Plus when one of the judges asked one of the contestants for his opinion on this issue. He came up strongly saying we need to take strong actions against people who are basing their politics on this and put them behind bars. Don’t know if that approach will be suitable. Something more fundamental needs to be done.

The core issue:
Flight of all classes of workers from Bihar is just based on lack of opportunity in the native state. This is very similar to flight of students from India to America or exodus of engineers or doctors to other countries.

We become very protective if America modifies rules to accept less H1B visa or Britain changes rules for stricter entry of post graduate doctors from India. Similar is the case when Raj or Uddhav Thackrey protest against Bihari’s to safeguard their Marathi Manus.

If I get the opportunity there is cent percent chance that I’ll go back to Bihar. But if I go back to my state now, the best possible job I can think of is farming on my grandparents land or may be teaching. Till then I’ll have to make do with “Kannada gothilla’ (don’t know Kannada language) and “Telugu raadu” (don’t know Telugu). But should I wait till eternity for that opportunity to come!

Everything within me says to go and contribute to my state. And I will one day. But won’t every Bihari say this… ‘one day’! Why am I not acting on it now! It’s only I who is to be blamed for the inaction now.

The whole episode is an eye opener for the management of these two states of Bihar and UP. The problem doesn’t lie with those Thackery’s but it’s within us. We need to make changes with haste to the conditions of these states. Until then these issues will keep coming up.

State governments need to make the environment conducive for many enterprising Bihari’s to come back and create a new Bihar. The message sent to the outside world needs to be strong that we are coming as well. I wish and will definitely contribute in big way to this transformation.