Simplistic Solutions

Mr Bal Thackeray has a knack of suggesting rather simplistic solutions to complex problems. For instance, if Marathi youths are not getti...

Mr Bal Thackeray has a knack of suggesting rather simplistic solutions to complex problems. For instance, if Marathi youths are not getting jobs, he orders that all South Indians be asked to leave Mumbai and if the city is becoming too crowded, he commands deportation of Bangladeshi immigrants. Thackeray put forth another of his grand ideas at the Shiv Sena8217;s Dussehra rally on Thursday. Taking exception to Mayor Nandu Satam8217;s plans to create hawking zones in a few residential areas, he suggested that a simpler thing to do would be to deport unauthorised hawkers to their respective states. The emphasis, of course, was on the word states8217;. What he meant was that any hawker who was not a Maharashtrian be seen as a suspect. He had come armed with figures.

According to him, of the three lakh hawkers8217; in Mumbai around 30,000 were authorised. Send them all back and there would be no need to create hawking zones and disturb the peace of residential areas.

What this effectively means is that the BMC8217;s hawkingzones scheme now goes for a toss. The civic body now will have to start from scratch. And it seems quite improbable that it can relocate hawkers without putting some residential areas to use for this. Thackeray is ignoring some ground realities. He is forgetting that as soon as the illegal8217; hawkers were driven out of Mumbai, an equal number would be ready to replace them. For, hawkers, all three lakh of them, are here because the city needs them. They provide essential services to people at competitive rates. It8217;s easy to see that it8217;s the approaching elections that prompted Thackeray to take such a hardline stance. Residential areas mean votes and he doesn8217;t want to lose them even if that means junking a plan that was, if not perfect, a good try.