Mumbai, Feb 13 (IANS) Mumbaikars Wednesday denounced stray incidents of violence before and after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s arrest Wednesday, and said they were worried about the future of this metropolis that was on its way to become a global financial capital.
Ruchi Jain, an MBA student of the MET college, felt that politicians provoking violence were ruining the metropolis which is on the threshold of attaining the status of a global financial capital.
“By a stupid act, they are ruining the common people’s life and city’s glorious future. I wonder who will pay for the damages – short-term and long-term,” she said.
Thackeray as well as Abu Asim Azmi, the state president of the Samajwadi Party, were arrested on charges of inciting hatred among ethnic groups. They were later released on bail.
The arrests followed days of violence starting Feb 3 when Thackeray, nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, hit out at north Indians calling them “outsiders” in Mumbai. This provoked clashes with Azmi’s supporters.
“I feel Raj Thackeray has taken a foolish political step, which a leader should never take. When he walked out of the Shiv Sena, he gave a very liberal image to his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, a party catering to the youth,” said Pooja Nayak, a first-year B.Com. student from the Patkar College in northwest Mumbai.
“He has managed to gain support of sections of poor parochial Maharashtrians, using the emotional issue of so-called outsiders-versus-locals,” Nayak told IANS.
“This is nothing but a political game. This gimmick is just to woo the vote bank. Once elections come and go, everything will become normal, nobody will talk of outsiders,” said Satish Prabhu, a charted accountant based in Chembur, eastern suburb in Mumbai.
Riddhi Oza, a human resource executive with a French multinational, said: “All political parties must be penalised or at least asked to compensate for violence and damage to public property.”
“If they fail to do so, they should be debarred from contesting the next assembly elections which are coming up,” she added.
Jayashree Kamath, a homemaker from Dombilvili in Thane district, said Raj Thackeray had garnered a lot of media attention by his campaign against north Indian people settled here. “Now the MNS will be at least a known name. So far it was only known in Maharashtra,” she said.