Cluster Development: A medicine worse than the disease

The Maharashtra State Government has tabled a scheme for Cluster Development of housing projects in Mumbai. Read my views on why the scheme is harmful and needs to be scrapped here.

Me Mumbaikar

On 26^th April 1986, The Times of India carried a cartoon depicting a khadi-and-Gandhi-cap clad politician cautiously touching a sleeping tiger. The tiger roars back, taking the neta by surprise. “He’s alive!”, the neta exclaims, while the common man watches on. It was the story of the 1985 BMC (Bombay Municipal Corporation, then) elections, whose results had just been declared and a seemingly dormant Shiv Sena had scored a surprise victory. A picture is worth a thousand words, and so was this R.K.Laxman cartoon.

Though the Shiv Sena had been formed nearly two decades earlier, it had largely remained on the periphery of the State’s politics until then. With this victory in the BMC, the Sena saw a strong resurgence, and Bal Thackeray quickly capitalized on it, swaying the local Marathi youth, hit hard by the influx of migrants and the devastating textile strike by Datta Samant in 1982. The Sena has almost continuously controlled Mumbai since then, and when in 1995, Manohar Joshi was sworn in as the 15^th Chief Minister of Maharashtra; Thackeray’s power reached its peak. (The term ‘remote control’ first came into political parlance with this very arrangement)

Among his detractors, Bal Thackeray evoked extreme reactions. His contempt for democracy, anti-Muslim rhetoric or use of strong arm tactics made him a soft target of the pseudo-secular intelligentsia. But there is one thing Bal Thackeray could never be accused of – hypocrisy. Thackeray spoke what his heart said, and it was this very forthrightness that endeared him to his masses.

Thackeray’s success came, not because of, but in spite of, an unfriendly media. It has rarely been reported that the Shiv Sena runs one of the largest ambulance networks in the country. Its Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti provided jobs to hundreds of jobless youth in the 1980s and early 90s, literally pre-empting them from joining the underworld during the heydays of Mumbai gang wars. At the peak of the Mandal Commission controversy, when even the supposedly upper caste parties like the Congress and the BJP dithered, Bal Thackeray launched a scathing attack on caste based reservations, risking his political career, but staying true to the principles he believed in.  Long before Vajpayee’s Roads Revolution, the Sena – BJP government built a network of more than 50 flyovers in the city, without which city traffic would have come to a standstill today.

In later years, Thackeray tried to expand his base outside Maharashtra, shedding his pro-Marathi stance and embracing the Hindutva agenda. This earned him a large non-Marathi following within Mumbai, but the Sena could not make any meaningful dent outside Maharashtra.

Today, Thackeray leaves the Sena in a precarious state. As corruption dominates the political discourse, the Shiv Sena finds itself on a sticky wicket. Raj Thackeray’s MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) has split his Marathi manoos voter base down the middle. How Uddhav takes up these challenges remains to be seen.

While most of Maharashtra’s politicians come from regions such as the Konkan, Vidarbha, Central Maharashtra or the sugar belt, Thackeray was the only leading political figure who had his roots in Mumbai. Till the very end, Thackeray remained in Mumbai, trusting his life to doctors who belonged to the very faith he was accused of targeting.

He loved Mumbai and fought for Mumbai. For this and this alone, Balasaheb Thackeray will be badly missed.

Buddham Sharanam Gachhami !

Long before India started exporting spices or software, Ideas, Thought Leadership and Spirituality were the earliest exports from India to the world. The zero and the decimal system, which forms basis of the numbering system that the world uses today, was invented in India. Kautilya’s Arthashastra, written in the 4^th Century BC, laid down the principles of governance, public administration and taxation several centuries before modern-day economics or political science was born. Wonders of modern science, from aircrafts to surgeries have all been mentioned in ancient Indian texts. Ayurveda holds the secrets of good health which modern day researchers are trying to discover and patent. Sushruta’s Sushruta Samhita, written in 800 BC mentions more than 300 surgeries, including the likes of plastic surgery, cataract and caesarian section. The techniques of Yoga and Meditation as key to a healthy body and a healthy mind are seeing resurgence in the West.

Grand Buddha statue at the pagoda

One of the ideas that India gave birth to, and were embraced by the world, were the teachings of Gautam Buddha. From Mongolia in the North to Sri Lanka in the South, and from South East Asia to Japan, Buddhism is today the fourth largest religion in the World. Close to half a million people in the world follow Buddha and his teachings as their principal religious order.

Buddha taught that suffering is an ingrained part of existence, but it is possible to end it by following the right path. The right path, he said is the eight – fold noble path of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Buddha said no teachings should be accepted unless they are borne out by our experience and are praised by the wise. Buddha held that two qualities are rare among humans: Katannuta that is, Gratitude and Pubbakarita, which is, initiative to help others without expecting anything in return. These two qualities are the true measure of progress.

A grand Pagoda, styled along traditional Burmese architecture, has come up in Mumbai recently.  The pagoda, built by the Global Vipassana Foundation seeks to spread the true teachings of Buddha and  promotes the practice of Vipassana Meditation that was said to have been practiced by Buddha himself.

The Pagoda claims to contain the largest pillar-less dome structure in the World, 90 feet in height and 280 feet in diameter. Built using 2.5 million tonnes of stone and 3,000 truckloads of sand, the pagoda towers to a height of a 30-storey building. Underneath it is a huge meditation hall which can accommodate 8,000 people at a time. It has been designed as a replica of Shwe Dagon Pagoda of Myanmar. Relics of Gautam Buddha are enshrined at the site. The entire complex, apart from the main pagoda, contains several other structures such as an art gallery, a library, two other smaller pagodas, an auditorium, a food court etc. Exquisite samples of traditional Burmese architecture can be seen throughout the campus. The art gallery contains stunning paintings depicting the life of Gautam Buddha from birth to death. An excellent facility, to listen to the story of each painting as you move along the gallery, using a tape and earphones is available. This makes the visit to the gallery worthwhile and meaningful, as it enhances our understanding of the life of Gautam Buddha and his teachings. The pagoda is located off the coast of Gorai, in Mumbai. Take a look some day.