IF YOU ARE POOR, NO ONE LIKES YOU: VIEW ON GUJARAT EXODUS



Mukesh Devrari

Migrants workers were attacked in Gujarat. People were angry as one toddler was raped and assaulted by a migrant worker. No doubt people are angry and looking at the incident as an assault on native Gujarati population. This incident provided an opportunity for the disgruntled local population to vent out their anger. 

Irrespective of the amount of genuine anger and pain felt by the local population, it is wrong to attack innocent migrant workers from the Hindi belt who have moved to the slightly industrialized states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat in hordes, for the someone else’s crime. It is the responsibility of the state government to ensure that the mob must not attack the migrant workers who moved to Gujarat to earn their living out of necessity, not out of desire.  

No individual wants to move to other places by leaving behind family and near and dear ones. Migration to particular areas can be interpreted as a human quest for better tomorrow. It is constitutionally protected fundamental right of all Indian citizens to move freely in the country without any fear. However, this issue should be analyzed holistically. Apart from all legal and constitutional arguments, it makes perfect sense to consider the issues raised by the native population. 

It is essential to find out why people have become so angry with migrants. What they have done to Gujarat? Did they change Gujarat in any manner? Did they pose any threat to Gujarati culture or identity? Did they not assimilate properly in Gujarat? Why migrant workers have become an eyesore for the local population?

Policy makers and government officials must not hesitate in discussing all aspects of the issue and then suggest a holistic solution. Gujarat incident cannot be seen only from the law and order perspective. Simmering anger can bring disaster to this state already known for murdering and maiming hundreds of Muslims in the 2002 communal riots.

More jobs can be one solution if this is only an economic problem as suggested by the editorial in ‘The Hindu’. This economic deterministic approach is typical to any Marxist and left-leaning perspective, which also partially captures the reasons for attacks on minorities, but there is more to it, that meets the eye. 

Firstly, No nativist attacks doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and other skilled migrant workers. Only people belonging to the lowest economic strata of society are being threatened and violently attacked across India by the local population. Secondly, due to cultural reasons and failure of corrupt successive governments in Hindi belt states performed terribly on all socio-economic parameters. Increasing population in these states is also responsible for their plight.

Hindi belt states with their rising population pose a serious threat to peace and tranquillity in India. The rising population also endangers the environment in the long run. Now the Union government should help the industrialization process in Hindi belt. It should also help state governments to execute programs to control the population to avoid further expansion of demographic curse.

Almost all states in India is feeling the impact of the overwhelming presence of migrants, who believe in a different set of values and culturally belong to another realm alien to the local population. Ethnically also they are different. People from north India are generally considered reckless, undisciplined, aggressive, loud and violent by the other Indian states, they are horribly wrong in their assessment.    

end. 

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