Challenges to National Integration

Dina Nath Mishra
The quotient of national integration is decreasing event by event. Events like that of Mumbai where north Indians were chased and beaten up by political goons of Maharashtra Navanirman Sena look like a leap forward towards national disintegration. If you have seen those goons beating up north Indians on the streets of Mumbai and its suburbs, your sense of belonging to the nation must have got shaken.

Not that these recent happenings were the only black spot on the face of Mumbai; earlier also Mumbai witnessed such things. Decades back the same treatment was meted out to the south Indians. But this time it has evoked greater reaction. Tens of thousands of north Indians had to flee Mumbai. Many were killed and thousands were injured. It has nothing to do with the pride of Mumbaikar. It was the result of one-upmanship in the political game of commanding vote-bank between two Thackreys — Udhav and Raj. Udhav is declared heir apparent of Shiv Sena Supremo Bala Sahab Thackrey, and his nephew Raj Thackrey grudges loss of dynastic rights to Udhav Thackrey. It is also the result of the inner politics of Shiv Sena and the branched-out party, namely Maharashtra Navanirman Samiti. In this game Raj scored few points over Udhav. It was also caused by Congress and NCP games with a view to garnering a bigger share of split in Shiv Sena slice.

The rift between Raj and Udhav is well known. NCP leader Sharad Pawar and couple of Shiv Sena deserters and now congress leaders continuously nourished the ego of Raj Thackrey. It suits both Congress and NCP because a weak Shiv Sena would be less of a challenge to them. That is why Raj Thackrey was treated with kid gloves and allowed to become more arrogant and more popular — at least seemingly in the media coverage.

Take yet another case of Maoists fighting against the state and ambushing hundreds of people in uniform. They are active in about a dozen States. With each strike Maoists are disrupting the fabric of national integration. There are militants in the eastern part of the country, fighting and killing people of their own tribe. These are symptoms of the decreasing quotient of national integration.

To cap it all, the UPA government at the Centre has been persistently trying to harmonize the meaning and essence of Muslim minority and terrorists. Whenever a terrorist module carries out serial blasts, sooner or later the names of terrorists appear in the media. Coincidentally it is also revealed that the terrorist module has been constituted by jihadi Muslims. It is thought that all terrorists are Muslims. The UPA has enlarged its meaning so as to suggest that all Muslims are terrorists. A great harm has been done by the UPA to the Muslims in general who have practically nothing to do with terrorism. When the case of Afzal Guru was being fought, three of my Muslim friends from Cochin rang me up and requested me to help in creating an atmosphere where Afzal Guru is hanged so that the whole Muslim community is not blamed. The UPA government did just the opposite. A general belief has been created that Muslims in general do not want Afzal Guru to be hanged and, therefore, the UPA government did not hang him to avoid displeasure of Muslims.

The problem of national integration has been multiplied by vote-greedy politicians and vote-bank politics. Raj Thackrey may not have understood the ramifications of his agitation against north Indians. What really integrated India for thousand of years? Cultural continuum of the whole of India — tolerance towards others. The fact is that the Constitution has hundreds of binding positions for the nation but there are some seeds of disintegration in it. source: the sentinel assam