Dear Raj Thackeray, Big Thanks from Bihar

7/27/2018 Dear Raj Thackeray, Big Thanks From Bihar

EDITIODearN Raj Thackeray, Big Thanks From Bihar  IN   

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Abhishek Anicca Writer interested in politics, culture, ﬁlms and music THE BLOG Dear Raj Thackeray, Big Thanks From Bihar

18/03/2016 8:19 AM IST | Updated 15/07/2016 8:26 AM IST

HINDUSTAN TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES MUMBAI, INDIA - MARCH 9: MNS Chief Raj Thackeray after addressing his party workers on the eighth foundation day of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), in his speech he declared his support to Narendra Modi for the PM's post, at the Shanmukhananda hall on March 9, 2014 in Mumbai, India. Thackeray said Modi should become the Prime Minister of the country and announced that his party will contest the Lok Sabha polls. (Photo by Vijayanand Gupta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Dear Raj Thackeray ji,

It's great to see that you are back to your old tricks. I had almost forgotten that I existed but thanks to your new rant, I have come to the realization that I am a Bihari who lives (and works) in Bihar. Working in Bihar, I often get depressed about the widespread corruption, ineﬃciency and casteism that are deeply ingrained in our system. It's not very diﬀerent from Maharashtra or any other state in India. But unlike Maharashtra, we have a distinct reminder set in our life alarms to remind us about our collective identity -- YOU!

 “It is no coincidenceSUBSCRIBE T Othat OUR the NEW peopleSLETTER who are at

the centre ofadd ryouress@em angstail.com are the kind of peopleSubscribe! who happen to be vulnerable all across India...

https://www.huffingtonpost.in/abhishek-anicca/a-letter-to-mr-thackeray_b_9482796.html 1/7 7/27/2018 Dear Raj Thackeray, Big Thanks From Bihar Whenever I am in doubt, I just go back to reading your statements on Bihari asmita (pride)! FragmenDearted by Rclaajss Thack, caste aeraynd ide, oBiglogic Thankal boundsa riFromes, the Bihar people of Bihar hardly ever come together under one identity. From time to time, whenever our 'asmita' is overshadowed by doubt, you come to our rescue. You remind us that we are, after all, Biharis, all of us, even those who don't consider themselves Biharis anymore and are not  very diﬀerent from you in their ideology and politics. You also remind us of how industrious, 'jugaadu' and tenacious we can be. I don't generally accept such compliments for they sound irrational but you shove it down our throats with such force, that there is no  option left but to swallow it.  It is of course no coincidence that the people who are at the centre of your angst are the kind of people who happen to be vulnerable all across India, even in Bihar. Working-class people -- auto rickshaw pullers, hawkers, street vendors have all been the subject of your focused interventions for almost a decade. It's good politics, considering the fact that no one gives a damn about working-class people and their rights in India these days. Not the government, certainly. In fact, the section of society which is the most hostile and suspicious towards the working class is the urban middle class that has risen in the neoliberal spring of the last two decades. I am told that the majority of the people who form your vote base also belong to that same middle class. So it would have been good politics, if only it was less polemical and more substantive. Even middle-class Maharashtrians realize that driving an auto is not something that highlights the aspirations of mostly white/blue collared and upwardly mobile people. I recommend that the next time you decide to target north Indians, please keep this in mind and attack those who are comparatively privileged.

I“ would like to thank you for making us feel as if we are part of the fraternity of migrants across the world that are snatching  opportSuUnBSitCieRIBsE T.O.. OUR NEWSLETTER [email protected] Subscribe!

Moreover, I would like to personally thank you for making us feel as if we are part of the fraternity of migrants spread all across the world that are snatching opportunities in distant

https://www.huffingtonpost.in/abhishek-anicca/a-letter-to-mr-thackeray_b_9482796.html 2/7 7/27/2018 Dear Raj Thackeray, Big Thanks From Bihar lands and making them their own. In return, we have helped the world create a range of colourfulDear leaders R wajh oThack seem terayo have, Bigan a llThankergic reasc tFromion to ra Bihartionality and logic, ranging from the hugely popular Mr Trump to the comparatively less creative ones like you. Alas, even Mr Trump's popularity stems from the fact that he attacks people who are 'outsiders' in his deﬁnition of what constitutes a nation. What's your idea of nationality, Mr. Thackeray?  Are you a part of the growing brigade of upper caste and right wing fanatics who choose not to believe in our Constitution whenever it gets in the way and on other occasions cite the same Constitution to send political opponents to jail? If not, you are a true  revolutionary in every sense of the word. In a time when the country seems so gung ho about the idea of nationalism, you subvert the idea of the nation with such ease that we are bound to question what the fuss around nationalism was all about. You are a reminder that there are bigger problems of the 'common man' that haunt us in our day to day lives, and that we should not waste our time in debating grand ideas which don't have an impact on these pressing issues.

“You subvert the idea of the nation with such ease that we are bound to question what the fuss around nationalism was all about.

In the end, like any mediocre writer of our times, I would like to end with an anecdote. In rural Western Champaran last year, I met a middle-aged man reading a Hindi newspaper outside a primary health centre. He was a Dalit landless labourer working in the ﬁelds of an upper caste landlord. He started talking about a piece he had read in the paper, something to do with farmers committing suicide in Vidarbha and other parts of Maharashtra. He was disturbed by the fact that these farmers owned land and still they were committing suicide. "It can easily happen to us too," he said. There is an innate Indianness to Vidarbha and Western Champaran, something that mainstream political

parties and the media fail to understand. Unless all of us collectively pay attention to that hidden identity that SbUindBsS uCs RtoIgetBEh TerO, o uOr UBRiha Nri EanWd SMLaEraTthTiE idRentities will never strike a

chord with the conscieandcder oesf so@ure dmeamilo.ccoramtic nation. Till then, keep inspiSubscribe!ring us with whatever you have got.

With lots of litti chokha (love), https://www.huffingtonpost.in/abhishek-anicca/a-letter-to-mr-thackeray_b_9482796.html 3/7 7/27/2018 Dear Raj Thackeray, Big Thanks From Bihar A fellow Indian  Dear Raj Thackeray, Big Thanks From Bihar Like Us On Facebook | Follow Us On Twitter | Contact HuﬀPost India  Also see on HuﬀPost: 

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