Recently,there have been many burglaries in the suburbs of Mumbai.Not that it is an unusual phenomenon.What is different about this gang of robbers is that they are a tribal and nomadic community of Maharashtra. After some recent incidents of burglary, a lot has been written in newspapers,particularly how they look and dress.They are very rustic,muscular,have grotesque features and wear only underwears and banians.They are identified as the 'chaddi-banian' wallahs.The name of their community is phanse-pardhi.In one incident which occurred last week,they beat up a team of policemen sent to apprehend them.They have a lot of chutzpah and have been getting away with their robbing and looting and even committing burglary in the flats of senior police offcials and civil servants.
R R Patil,the state Dy.C.M,who has become famous for giving up his pan-chewing habit of three decades and for closing down dance bars,assured the phanse-pardhis of jobs,even in the police force,as part of their rehabilitation.He referred to them as a very poor and nomadic community and warned that if anyone calls them criminals,Government will take strict action against them.The eyes of these phanse pardhis would have popped out with disbelief and R R Patil's words must have been hosannahs to their ears.R R Patil says that the bar ban has sobered many families.He thinks that the promise of rehabilitation will sober the 'phanse-pardhis' too.No more churis and chakus and no signature 'chaddi banians'.They will become a civilised lot.
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uncle if the minister can actually keep his word, it'll be quite something. for sometime i thought this dance bar ban thing will fizzle out in no time because plenty of policemen and politicians are involved in this trade or connected to it, but patil managed to shut them down. i wish he takes his second promise forward as well.
it's true that these tribals take up arms to keep their body and soul together, the naxal menace is also because of exploitation and poverty. if you notice all the active naxal areas are backward and underdeveloped.
rums,if you trace back to the origin of the naxalites,you will see that their ideology was one of achieving their objectives only by violence.they breath violence,live by violence and die in violence.there is no 'raison de etre' for their survival otherwise.they have no relevance in peace.it has to be a violent struggle all the time.though i fully agree that exploitation and poverty must be eradicated,the path taken by the naxalites cannot help in achieving it.cpm in west bengal encouraged the naxalites.and see what has happened to west bengal.it required a ssray to do a massive cleanup.and even the cpm these days keeps the naxalites at arm's length.prosperity and development cannot be achieved by the gun.
and i don't at all approve of what rr patil is doing.closing down the dance bars was a foolish thing to do.the govt has important functions to perform,improve the roads,rehabilitate the people living in the slums,and work towards employment and wealth generation for the general welfare of all.
uncle, i know all about naxals, my mum's younger brother was one, in fact, he is a card carrying communist party member now and no, i have no sympathies for the violent naxals. the naxal movement in bengal was an agri movement and was not violent to begin with. but it is true that it is due to grinding poverty and helplessness that militant naxalism takes root. it's a tough choice for impoverished people. they don't have a choice but to join this deadly game because they will die anyway. they are caught between criminal politicians like rajshekhar reddy and the brutal naxal leaders.
as for the dance bar thing, i don't think shutting down dance bars is a bad thing. they were dens of sleaze and sordidness, at least that is what i felt when i visited a couple while in b'bay.
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