FE Editorial : Marathi pride & economic downfall

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: Even by its own extraordinary standards of rowdiness, the MNS has hit a new low in Maharashtra. Protesting SP leader Abu Asim Azmi taking his oath in Hindi, MNS legislators manhandled him. But to anyone who has followed MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s rise to power on the back of an anti-immigration rant shouldn’t be surprised. To anyone whose historical sense further factors in how Raj’s precursor rose to power by ranting against south Indians and Gujaratis living in Mumbai, the sense of déjà vu should be even stronger. Actually, the only surprising thing is how, in the face of all the facts proving the economic benefits of migration, ‘sons of soil’ politics still rules the roost in India’s financial capital. Take this year’s Human Development Report, for example. It underlines a substantial fall in poverty rates for households that have at least one member who has moved elsewhere within the country. In Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, poverty rates in households with one migrant fell by about half between 2001-02 and 2006-07. None of this is likely to impress Raj, who couldn’t care less about how source communities may be benefiting from migration. He couldn’t care less that Mumbai’s trademark cosmopolitanism is the result of this migratory mix. But, if he cares about Mumbai, shouldn’t he at least be attending to how the city’s lungs would choke for want of migratory oxygen? As The Indian Express reported yesterday, whether it’s the construction business in big cities like Mumbai or the likes of Pune vineyards, all kinds of Maharashtra enterprises rely on labour from Bihar and elsewhere. Conflicting Raj’s claims, these disparate business owners would surely have been employing local labour if it was available or was cost-effective. Plus, the evidence suggests that rather than crowding out locals from the job market, migrants boost economic output and help improve rates of investment in new businesses.