Please let us live in Mumbai peacefully: N Indians

Mumbai, Mar10: The migrants from northern India on Sunday protested against the 'murky politics' being played in the name of migrants" row. The protestors, mainly hailing from northern India, who have migrated to Mumbai in search of jobs, said that these petty politics hurt their livelihood.

They further alleged that there is no animosity among the residents and the so-called migrants, but the 'leaders' are playing them up against each other. “We Hindi speaking people come to work in Mumbai because there are no factories or industries in Bihar and we could not get our bread and butter there. Therefore, please let us live here peacefully," said Rakesh Modi, a businessman. The protestors also burnt effigies of Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

They said that the politicians and leaders spark off controversies through their bitter comments while sitting in the national capital to take political mileage out of it. Mumbai Police last month arrested Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray for inciting violence after his party's workers attacked north Indians who migrated to the city. He was later released on bail.

Less than 50 per cent of Mumbai's 17 million residents are Maharashtrians. The MNS says it wants more jobs for what it calls the "sons of the soil" and greater respect from Mumbaikers whose roots lie elsewhere. The party said the recent violence was not ordered by the party, but was rather a spontaneous outburst of injured Maharashtrian pride.

On the other hand, Shiv Sena (Hindu radical outfit) supremo, Bal Thackeray, has been making a bid to recapture his party's 'sons of the soil plank' in Maharashtra, which has been hijacked by his estranged nephew Raj Thackeray. In an editorial published in his party's mouthpiece 'Saamna', Balasaheb Thackeray had slammed lawmakers from Bihar for creating a ruckus in the parliament over the migrants' row in Mumbai.

ANI