The recent move of the Karnataka government to fix quota for the locals in private jobs – later the Bill in this regard was put on hold following protest by industries – once again sparks off a debate on the hackneyed topic of migration – which is actually a phenomenon intrinsically associated with development and not backwardness. At the same time, any such step can be legally challenged as in the case of other states. But, an objective study will lead to a more appropriate and balanced conclusion.
For instance, till the fag end of the 20th century when there was hardly any workforce from West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, etc., visible anywhere in Kerala lakhs of Malayali-speaking nurses, school teachers and typists, not to speak of other professionals, were spread all over North India. In several cities, for example, Delhi, jobs in many hospitals, schools and private offices were virtually monopolised by them. Private schools would prefer teachers from Kerala over local ones as they would fear that the
latter may not be good at work and may even indulge in petty politics. Trains originating from Delhi, Howrah, Patna, Bokaro, etc., to various destinations in Kerala, would be jam-packed on the eve of Christmas or Onam as there would be a mad rush to go home to celebrate the festival.
Now their presence in north India may have got somewhat reduced because local young women and men are taking up these jobs. They are acquiring vocational courses and skills and replacing the Keralites. Opening of job opportunities in Gulf countries also checked their flow to North India.
As Keralites are proud citizens of India nobody, especially in the Hindi-speaking states questioned their presence. In fact, they were held in high esteem and their working efficiency was always applauded.
Maharashtra scenario
In contrast, Shiv Sena came up in 1966 to counter trade unionism, the growing presence of ‘Madrasis’ (the term usually used for South Indians) as well as strong control over business by Gujarati traders. The then Congress chief minister Vasantrao Naik reportedly backed its founder Bal Thackeray as it was not easy to legislate any law against outsiders. Actually, Gujarat and Maharashtra were one state called Bombay till their bifurcation on May 1, 1960,
In later years the Sena and its breakaway group, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of Raj Thackeray directed its attention more against the migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as well as Muslims. The alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party way back in 1984 compelled it to soften its stand towards Gujaratis.
Also read: Karnataka’s Private Sector Quota Bill On Hold Following Uproar
However, in the last couple of years, the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena has once again become critical of the Gujarati trading community. The party launched a blistering attack on them during the recently held Lok Sabha election. They were accused of exploiting the people of Maharashtra.
The reason was obvious – Gujaratis in Maharashtra threw their lot solidly behind the Bharatiya Janata Party. During the election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook his roadshow in Gujarati-concentrated pockets of Mumbai.
Brexit fallout
The issue of migrants needs to be looked in a different way too. Britons are paying the price for thoughtlessly going for Brexit. The excessive fear of transnational migration (unlike inter-state migration in India) took Conservatives (as well as other rightist parties) to another extreme. The Tories ultimately lost power, but not before causing serious economic decline.
Former US President Donald Trump is once again making transnational migration a big election issue though the fact is that almost the entire population of his country comprises migrants from Europe. Not only that they took millions of African slaves with them to clear the jungles, make roads and later lay railway tracks and make North and South America inhabitable. It is with the help of these Blacks that they eliminated the aboriginal population of the two continents in the western hemisphere.
Now Trump is accusing the migrants from Latin America and other places are taking all the jobs. He is deliberately confusing legal and illegal migrants. He needs to be reminded that there is a certain business lobby in the United States which clandestinely promotes the smuggling of illegal migrants as they form a cheap labour force. Their argument is that America needs them for its development. As the West is facing a fast decline in their population they can not afford to economically survive without migration from outside. Thus, there should be more humane approach to this issue.
As such rhetoric is directed against those who come for the blue-collared and low-paid menial jobs Trump never talked about expelling Jews, the latest of migrants, who actually came as refugees in the 1930s but later formed over 2.4% of the American population. He knows that it is impossible as Jews have a substantial presence in the fields of business, industry, education, media, etc.
Migration a reality
Like the previous BJP government, the Congress government in Karnataka may have developed cold feet after initiating the process, and temporarily shelved the idea, but the issue of migration – be it in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Delhi, etc., has more to do with cheap politics, rather than the economy.
The then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit raised the issue of migration, not knowing her own deep roots in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. She was born Sheila Kapoor in Kapurthala and her IAS husband Vinod Dikshit was from Unnao in UP.
So, before taking up any such controversial step one cannot ignore some very basic facts.
In this digitalised and globalised world when transportation has become easy migrating from one place to another has become a part of life for everyone – be it South Indians or Biharis, Latinos or Britons, Africans or French, Vietnamese or Japanese. The planet would come to a standstill once this phenomenon of migration is stopped. Here one needs to differentiate migration within the country and transnational ones. There is no constitutional bar on moving to other places within the national boundary, unless any restriction is imposed, for example, in some regions of North East India. On the other hand, any country is within its right to check the inflow of illegal migrants. Yet there is no scope for sounding xenophobic and being abusive just for the sake of votes.
So far Karnataka’s concern may one ask as to why it is only planning to put a cap on the private jobs for outsiders. Rather it should also make a law fixing a quota of 25% of students from other states who can take admission in private engineering, medical and other professional institutes. Just wait for its ramifications. All the educational shops with massive infrastructure would close down as a huge number of those who take admission are from the north Indian states.
Contrary to the United States, where trans-national migration is an issue, here in India politicians—cutting across the party lines – make the inter-state migration a big controversy for narrow populist gain.