That was a slogan coined by the fiery freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak to oust the then ‘outsiders’ i.e. British. That was one face of swaraj and today we have another (swa)raj. Difference one fought to create unity…the other fights to divide.  

 

So we are once again saddled with the insider-outsider war. Accusations are flying left, right and centre over who’s snatching whose job. And who is at the centre of it all…not Raj Thackeray…the common man or rather as popularised by Naseeruddin Shah in ‘A Wednesday’ - a stupid common man. 

 

Much has been said about the MNS attacks on innocent candidates seeking to appear for railway exams. What was their fault – that the Government of India allowed them to seek jobs anywhere in the country or that companies refused to set foot on their lawless soils thus forcing them to leave their cocoons and look elsewhere or that till date none of the politicians have bothered to sit across the table, present their cases to the Government and decide or demarcate issues such as migration of labour, channelising of tax money, etc. What was the fault of the poor marathi manoos who was also caught in MNS ire and ended up injured or having their vehicles etc. damaged? Will Raj pay for restoration of Thane, Kalyan and Dombivili? Will he pay for the damaged buses, private vehicles, broken display windows of shops? Will he cover up for the loss of earning faced by shopkeepers and daily wage earners who had to stay put at home? Will Lalu Prasad Yadav bear the cost of the burnt trains in Bihar from his own pocket?

 

These I know are rhetorics. It’s me and lakhs like me who will pay for this. We who will slog and pay taxes that will go towards undoing this damage. And what will the perpetrators get in return…bail, western loos in jail, home cooked food in jail, SUVs, Z security, convoy and the list goes on…    

 

In all this news what caught my attention was an article that said that Raj had through his lawyer Akhilesh Choubey moved Jharkhand High Court seeking a stay on a non-bailable arrest warrant issued by a court in Jamshedpur for, allegedly, making derogatory remarks about Bihar residents. What is so attention grabbing…the name of Raj’s lawyer. Akhilesh Choubey…very North Indian sounding…definitely not a Chavan…so did Raj take the help of an outsider to defend him?

 

Well…what can one say, “as you sow so shall you reap”…”what goes around comes around”…till then wait n watch.