By IANS
Mumbai : India’s financial capital was quiet Thursday with people going about their business as usual, a day after tension spiralled following the arrest of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray.
Kindergartens, schools and colleges opened as usual, the omnipresent Mumbai dabbawallahs were visible at various railway stations going about their usual chores. Office-goers hurried to their places of work as the city returned to normalcy.
Trains and public buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws created the usual traffic snarls on the highways and the four arterial roads as well the link roads around the city.
In fact, there were queues of people outside cinemas like Cinemax in Andheri and Thakur multiplex in Kandivli waiting to book tickets for the Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starrer “Jodhaa Akbar” which releases Friday.
Though it was business as usual, Jet Airways Executive Director Saroj K. Datta felt incidents of violence, like those seen in the city during the last several days with the MNS stepping up its campaign against north Indians, did not augur well for the city.
“More than the damage to public or private properties, the bigger damage is to its image which takes a long time to build,” he pointed out.
But environmentalist Debi Goenka said despite sporadic violence hitting Mumbai in the past few days, the image of India’s business hub had not taken a battering.
“It’s only the politicians who have suffered a further loss of credibility,” said Goenka, executive trustee of Conservation Action Trust.
Added Jayashree Nayak, a homemaker, “When I went to the market last night, almost all shops and malls were closed. However, more than a panic reaction it was a precautionary measure since lumpens take advantage of the situation.”
Mumbai University’s joint director of Institute of Distance Education (IDE) P. S. Vivek made a different point: “This was nothing, it did not even affect the city’s psyche in any manner. Mumbai has been through much more in the past and the image of the city has not been hampered. It was blown out of proportion by the TV channels.”
The violence that sparked in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra with the arrest of the MNS chief Wednesday afternoon simmered down with the same speed when Thackeray was released on bail within two hours. He and Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi were arrested on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and bailed out soon after.
MNS activists went on a violent rampage in several parts of Maharashtra in the two hours when the central suburban Vikhroli metropolitan magistrate was hearing the case registered against Thackeray by the Mumbai Police.
Several state run buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws were burnt and pelted with stones by MNS supporters. The worst affected in the state were Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Solapur and Manmad, with one person being killed in Nashik.
Thackeray and Azmi were arrested after the police had filed suo motu cases against them for inciting hatred amongst two ethnic groups by using invectives and provocative language.