The anti-MNS agitation in Bihar notwithstanding, Maharashtrians are not anti-Bihari. Many of them, including Narmada Bachao Andolan fame leader Medha Patkar, worked in the five flood-hit districts when the Kosi ran amock Bihar earlier this year. A Maharashtrian doctor, Chandrakant Patil, died due to lightning in flood-hit Supaul district while extending a helping hand to marooned people last month. A large number of relief workers led by National Alliance of Peoples’ Movement (NAPM) chief Medha Patkar and doctors from different medical colleges of Maharashtra visited the flood-ravaged districts to serve the people there. In fact, some of the Maharashtrian relief worker and doctors are still working among the flood victims. Now, some people of Maharastra led by Patkar have decided to oppose MNS on its home turf, Maharashtra. Patkar said that people of Maharashtra have decided to protest against what she called `planned and instigated violence’’ against north Indians in Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan. Patkar and her supporters took out a silent procession on Saturday at Churchgate in Mumbai in protest against misdeeds of Raj Thackeray. She said neither Raj Thackeray nor the MNS has actually done any good for the people of Maharashtra, whose cause they claim to espouse. `Major i ssues o f Maharashtra and its toiling masses like the agrarian crisis, displacement due to SEZ or mill workers in Mumbai have no place on the MNS chief’s agenda,’’ Patkar said. She said repeated inflammatory speeches and statements of Raj Thackeray were ample proof of his violent and unlawful demeanor and there could be absolutely no justification for state government for remaining a silent spectator.
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