Bombay or Mumbai?

Political parties and Political leaders resort to the Son-of-the-Soil theory whenever they find it convenient. Recently, Mumbai (formerly Bombay) has seen the ugly dance of Mr. Raj Thackery who is trying his level best to use the Marathi-Manoos (Marathi-Person) plank to threaten all outsiders (those from other states and those who have yet to adopt Marathi as their language of choice) to leave Mumbai.

Earlier, his uncle, the Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackerey, used the very same plank to further his own political cause. Also, Balasaheb has successfully targetted various specific communities and allegedly extracted a huge fees from those threatened to look the other way.

With elections around the corner, every political party in Maharashtra is trying to shore up its vote bank. Shiv Sena workers have now gone on a rampage and are defacing names where ever Bombay appears. They have already done this to Bombay Scottish and have destroyed the sign boards in front of Bombay Dyeing Showrooms.

They may next target Times of India which has a supplement named Bombay Times. What about targetting the Bombay High Court which continues to use the name Bombay instead of Mumbai?

Everyone on the street knows that Mumbai has not really improved just because its name was changed from Bombay to Mumbai, similarly Bangalore has not improved because it is now called Bengalaru. After 60 years of independence, Political leaders still feel they can fool all the people all the time!

It is time people from all walks of life boycotted such politicians that attempt to divide us on the basis of caste, creed, religion, language and state.