Dear Mr. Raj Thackeray
Today morning, I read about what the MLAs of your party did in the Maharashtra Assembly on Monday and how they were garlanded by other MLAs of your party after they slapped Mr Abu Azmi for taking oath in Hindi (and not in Marathi), which is an official language of the country. The whole of the country (except for a few supporters of your party and your ideals) is condemning the four honourable MLAs and your party for doing this unconstitutional act.
But Sir, please don’t worry. I have not written this letter to tell you that you or your party members are wrong. I have written this letter to make a small request to you. As I have seen what your party is doing in the recent past, it is quite clear that you don’t want any exchange of ideas, people and culture with the rest of the country in Maharashtra. You are sometimes also violating the freedoms given to a common Indian by the constitution of the country and you say that you are doing this to take care of the sentiments of the Marathi manoos (Marathi people). I would like to request you to ask those Marathi manoos whether they really want to be cut off from the rest of the country and the world. And will they be able to survive this solitude, that too in times when the world is getting flatter every day and it becomes all the more important to connect and interact with others?
Since you think the use of any language except Marathi is against the sentiments of Marathi manoos, I would request you to ban (of course, forcefully) all the activities which are going in any language other than Marathi. And my suggestion would be to start from Bollywood (centred at Mumbai) which produces hundreds of Hindi feature films per year. Think of how beautiful the situation would be if all the films coming out of Bollywood are in Marathi. Though the viewership and revenue would fall and Bollywood would no longer be one of the leading movie industries of the world, but the sentiments of the people in Maharashtra would take a refreshing breath, isn’t it?
You lead the people who beat Biharis and Upwallahs (people from UP) out of Mumbai and Maharashtra citing that they pollute your state and create slums. I am a Bihari and I agree that Biharis are a less sophisticated than the average Indian. And thus can understand your concerns about what might happen when too many Biharis come to the Mayanagri (Mumbai). But Sir, since you are against north Indians and the Hindi speaking people in general, shouldn’t you force the likes of Sunil Mittal and Amitabh Bachchan out of the state as well?
Mumbai is known as the city which sells dreams (and which you are too proud of!!) because of these corporate people and industry giants. And many of these people are non-Marathi. If you really care about the sentiments of the Marathi manoos, try to throw them out. With all due respect Sir, I know you can create a lot of hullabaloo when it comes to politics and the helpless common man but you can’t do anything when the corporate world comes into picture.
But if you don’t do anything as I have mentioned above, it would only make you a hypocrite. And then I would again like to request you stop worrying about the sentiments of the Marathi manoos. After all, the Marathi manoos would not like to see a hypocrite fighting for their sentiments. Don’t you think so, Sir?
Yours sincerely
An Indian.
