ON MIGRANTS

                                 ON MIGRANTS, REFUGEES AND INDIANS

Our irrepressible home minister namely P.Chidambaram has done it again, his recent remarks on Delhi being India’s crime capital primarily due to its’ migrant population has given a fillip to the utterances and shenanigans of separatist and diversive elements of the likes of Raj Thackeray, P. Chandrashekhar Rao, Vatal Nagaraj and others of their ilk and also opened a pandora’s box regarding the status of Indians within their motherland.

Who is a migrant, the Chamber’s dictionary defines a migrant as a person who wanders from place to place in search of refuge, livelihood or then simply a place to live in. India’s migrant population has mainly been shifting from place to place primarily to provide a better standard of living to their families and brethren back home or then because of the nascent fear of persecution be it religious, social or any other kind.

The insiders versus outsiders debate has been repeated ad nauseam and even gone on to become the bedrock on which many a political party has pitched its tent be it the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) which styled itself as the self proclaimed defender of the Dravidian identity, the Shiv Sena which gave us the clarion call Mumbai is for Maharashtrians and MEE MUMBAIKAR or then the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) which is hell bent upon dividing the burgeoning state of Andhra Pradesh in two to fulfil the repressed chief ministerial aspirations of its founding father.

If being a refugee or migrant within one’s own country is a disqualification, then the whole of north India would fall foul of this reprehensible tendency as more than 97% of the population of north India comprises of Indians who migrated to the northern climes to escape from the persecution that  threatened to befall them had they remained back in Pakistan. In fact, a majority of Delhi’s colonies comprise of migrants from Pakistan and yours truly is sorry to put paid to the foot in the mouth syndrome afflicting our home minister by pointing out or reiterating the fact that a majority of Delhiites do not look upon their brethren from Bihar or Uttar Pradesh as a nuisance but somebody who has an equal right to share in the spoils.

The solutions to this perennial problem of migration afflicting most of our prosperous cities lies within our midst and someone just needs to attune one’s finer sensibilities in conjunction with the silent pleas of these so called migrants who are crying out for the basic necessities of Roti, Kapada aur Makaan or then Bijli, Sadak aur Paani as our apologies for leaders like to put it. One fails to understand why these basic problems have not been addressed even after 64 years of independence. Is it simply because we lack the requisite political and economic will or then because these so called backwards or deprived sections of our society constitutes a bludgeoning vote back that can be exploited by our politicians to quench their insatiable thirst for a share of the gargantuan political pie.

Our glorious motherland was built brick by brick on the sheer dint of the blood, sweat, tears and the selfless spirit of sacrifice exhibited by the generations that preceded  us. One just has to look back in history to sight upon the sterling sacrifice of SHAHEED BHAGAT SINGH who smilingly embraced the gallows at the ripe young age of 23 as he was convinced that his sacrifice would not go in vain but prove to be a cornerstone ion our freedom struggle and can any self respecting Indian forget the sacrifices and struggle of Gandhiji, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Lala Lajpat Rai and others of their ilk.

Why have we conveniently forgotten the travails of our predecessors and reduced ourselves to a squabbling multitude of self serving apologies or then caricatures of self serving human beings who cannot look beyond our own narrow sectarian ends. Whatever happened to the concept of a glorious India wherein all Indians would live forever in peace and tranquillity with their heads held high.

LET US ALL SET ASIDE OUR PETTY DIFFERENCES UNITE AND STAND FIRM AGAINST ALL ILL TIMED AND INTENTIONED ATTEMPTS TO DIVIDE US ON THE BASIS OF CASTE, CREED, SECT, RELIGION, REGION OR LANGUAGE. INDIA IS FOR INDIANS AND NOT FOR ANY REGION SPECIFIC CITIZENRY. MESSRS CHIDAMBARAM, THACKERAY, RAO, GEELANI, MIRWAIZ, ROY AND NAGARAJ ARE YOU LISTENING.?

                                                                                     SUNDEEP CHOPRA.