The medicine to cure the disease called Bal-Raj Syndrome may sound too harsh, immoral and not good for the health of the country. But how will the two Thackerays react if some one from North India adopts tit-for-tat policy. If the duo are hell-bent upon throwing out the human resources from outside their own state do they realize what will happen to Maharashtra if some cynic of Bihar or UP one day launches an agitation calling for the blockade of minerals and foodgrains on way to this western state. After all it has to rely heavily on other states both for minerals and foodgrains.
Thackerays, and some of his apologists in the media, film-world and politics, need to be told loud and clear that their state, Maharashtra is a leading industrial power today largely because of the policy enunciated by the politicians of the same North India, against whom they spew venom. They must understand that the freight equalization policy was adopted in 1948 by the Centre to facilitate the equal growth of industry all over the country. At that time we have Jawaharlal Nehru, a man from UP, as the Prime Minister. And then a few years later a Bihari, Rajendra Prasad, became the first President of the country.
The worst sufferer of this policy was undoubtedly the undivided Bihar (now Jharkhand hewed out from it) and to some extent Orissa and Madhya Pradesh (now Chhatisgarh carved out from it). Industrialists interested in setting up plants anywhere in the country%u2013%u2013Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delh
