Troubling times

Unity in diversity!! Such is the disgust with which it is uttered nowadays that, every district and street declaring itself as a self-anointed country is not far off!! It may sound like extreme exaggeration but when you extrapolate the utterings and mutterings of local politicians and their side kick media folks, it is more than evident that they are not just sowing the seeds of discord against the concept of India, but are hell bent on dividing the nation into how many ever-smaller pieces possible!! Makes one wonder, how people get away with such things, that are clearly against the concept of this great nation and are literally creating disharmony amongst its citizens. Take for example, the recent “vadakkan” debate that has literally drawn a target behind every hindi speaking people in TN. The amount of vitriolic content being spewn online would make one wonder if at all there was ever a decent thought in such people’s mind about their neighboring citizens from other states. The way they stereotype people from hindi heartlands as dirty, paan spewing, rule breakers who would do any menial job for any amount paid as salary, if they’ve some place to sleep and something to eat is nothing short of racism. Agreed there are cases where people occupy reserved berths in trains and does spit paan. Doesn’t anyone else in southern India spit or do such things like blocking seats by throwing towels or kerchief irrespective of its marked for disabled people or elderly? If one feels offended for being labelled as madrasi for anyone from down south, it is equally wrong to whitewash them all as alike!! Some political commentators are spinning several conspiracy theories around this as an attempt by current government to use these migrant workers as seed population for future, where once their crowd becomes significantly more, they can challenge the political status quo as well. Nothing could be more mischievous or counter productive than such statements which are literally fueling the hatred already fanned by those with foul intentions. Such kind of people are not restricted to TN alone and their tribe seems to be increasing in numbers across every state. Son of the soil is the most dubious concept ever and is the most difficult one to prove. It depends on how far back one wants to look at and the parameters obviously cannot be one rule that fits all kind of a setup. With more and more people, supposedly mature and mainstream, joining this bandwagon, it makes a much scary scenario whereas a worst-case situation each state may go the west indies way. I vividly remember a statement by Brian Lara, when during an interview he lamented how he must take visa or permit to travel across the windies each of which are different countries of its own, while it is not so the case in India which is several times larger and culturally very different. The concept of nationhood and one nation has never been under more severe strain than at present. The failure of such ideologies electorally is the only way to secure the concept of India and the nation in itself.