Shiv Sena: What makes these kind of outfits survive and thrive

This week, we have the Shiv Sena crying foul at Shahrukh Khan's remarks about Pakistani cricketers in IPL. First of all, Shahrukh Khan is one irresponsible guy. If he really wanted Pakistani cricketers in IPL, he could have easily replaced some useless folks in the Kolkata Knight Riders team by Pakistani players. But his intent was not to take Pakistani players, but to get mileage by making irresponsible statements. But Shiv Sena is equally irresponsible for reacting to Shahrukh's statement the way they did.

Sometime ago there was a similar problem in Assam where some north Indians were targeted. Shiv Sena got its relevance by targeting south Indians in Mumbai. I am sure such things will be happening everywhere in India, but they may not be getting reported because they may not be happening on a large scale. The point I am trying to make is the fact that when local people (say Marathis in Mumbai) see a lot of north Indians or south Indians doing better because they are more enterprising than they are, they are bound to envy them and given an opportunity, target them and trouble them in some form.

Is there any solution to this problem? I don't think any solution exists. Why? because there will always be a good number of people in any part of the world who don't have anything else to do other than kill time and have someone pay for their living. Essentially folks who are looking for easy money. In a city like Mumbai, such people will be many and it is these people who will be targeted by outfits like Shiv Sena and try to whip up passions and get votes. Parties like Congress or BJP cannot antagonize them totally because they are afraid that they may need them sometime for some purpose.

A better solution to the problem, in my view, will be to work towards decreasing the rural-to-urban migration which is the root cause for such problems. The governments should work towards a more inclusive development which is evenly spread across the length and breadth of the country. If Bihar itself was prosperous, they why would a person from Bihar migrate to Mumbai? The same is true with migration from other parts of the country to places like Bangalore, Chennai etc. The migration disturbs the social fabric of the city and this is what outfits like Shiv Sena take advantage of.

In summary, embarking on a more evenly spread out development in India is the only way to avoid communal outfits like Shiv Sena taking people for a ride.