Monday, December 10, 2012

Forget Communalism, its Regionalism now!



I witnessed an incident last week which made me think as to where we are taking this nation of ours. We, the Middle-higher middle class generation often forget that there is an India which earns 5K-10K a month or may be even less who have got their own share of “problems” to deal with. But the question remains, Are those “problems” justified?

I hear a ruckus going on in the front end of the state transport inter city bus between 2 people having 2 diverse form of opinions. 1, A person from U.P (won’t use the term which is often used), lets call him “X” and another person who claims to be the “son of the soil” i.e. a localite from Pune, lets call him Y. Now allegedly “X” who was a passenger hadn’t paid for his ticket to Y who was the conductor and was getting off the bus without the payment. Y caught him and started abusing him. Y also got to know that he is not from his state as he did not speak the language. “X” began to defend himself and at last paid the price of the ticket. To my utter dismay and horror, Y gave him the ticket and ordered him to get off the bus. “X” now got angry and said, I have paid for the ticket, why should I get off. “M.C and B.C started, there was some pushing and shoving and finally something happened which was shocking and uncalled for, Y thought it was right and I am sure he was proud and “X” was well, I wouldn’t try to guess his reaction. Y threw X off the bus. Of course, the bus was stationary all this while with the entire ruckus on. So he wasn’t seriously hurt, but the mental hurt would have been a permanent one. Okay, he could have been getting off without paying a ticket, okay he could have been a thief, but whatever happened in front of eyes, wasn’t the right thing and sadly I couldn’t do anything about it.

The whole point of Y throwing X of the bus makes me wonder here. Would Y have done that if “X” would been a localite? I.e. spoken the same language as him? Did Y perceive “X” to be one of those who comes to “his territory” and engage in activities like the one mentioned above I.e. (Assumption that he had not paid his ticket). And perhaps the question to which I am sure there is answer to is, Should he have shoved him off the bus? The Answer to that is obviously “No”. But there is a deeper question to be asked here. Do we live in our own state or do we live in our own country? And why are we so Paranoid of other people coming from other states? Is it the problem of the state itself of not having/giving the required jobs for the locals? Is the problem of people coming from other states and staying the real problem or the people in their own respective state not coming to terms with them, a problem?

Unless we answer these questions I am afraid it will be state vs state and not religion vs religion that we would be seen next.