Anisha Sheth | The News Minute| March 16, 2015| 4.00 pm IST
The comments of a man on Facebook have generated a debate on who is an “original” resident of a city and who is an “outsider”.
On Monday, the Bangalore Mirror published a report about Prakash Sesharaghavachar, formerly the media adviser to the Karnataka state BJP, who had put Facebook posts questioning the rights of certain people to contribute to the development of the city.
He targeted civic amenities activist R K Mishra and BPAC, a group that works to bring about change in Bengaluru.
According to the Mirror, Sesharaghavachar said on Facebook: "Who is this RK Misra to decide Bengaluru's future? These outsiders forming various groups in different names are trying to dominate over the original Bengalureans. RK Misra, we don't need your guidance. Go back to your state and help them with your gyaan. You leave Bengaluru for Bengalureans. Those who are settled in Bengaluru after IT-BT revolution are trying to dictate their agenda on us. We should resist this with all our might. These phoney activists should be shown their place once and for all."
CEO of BPAC Revathy Ashok said she was “pained” by these remarks. Having grown up and lived in many cities both in India and abroad, she said: “I have lived in Bihar, in Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, New York, Detroit and in Bengaluru since 1974. I have lived here for 30 years. This is my home, my parents’ home, my childrens’ home. So what does that make me?”
Revathy Ashok
Ashok said that the Constitution of India guaranteed every citizen the right to freedom of speech and expression and also the right to live anywhere in the country.
“It’s a larger question of identity. I am a citizen of India first, and a Bangalorean next. How can these self-styled activists take away my voice?” she told The News Minute.
Ashok also said that as a resident of any place, she felt that “she should” contribute to the city in any manner possible, irrespective of how long she may have lived in that place.
She also said that people migrated because of opportunity and that if people were “too myopic to see that, then it was their problem”.
It was also the right of residents of a city to make representations to their elected representatives, she said, adding that this is what BPAC did. “If we are to be citizens who elect their representatives, then we must also engage with the city,” she said.
Former IITian R K Misra also had similar views and said he did not need “certification” from people like Sesharaghavachar.
Calling the views expressed by him as those of a “small minority”, Misra told TNM that as a resident of Bengaluru for the last 20 years, he had worked to make the city more livable.
He said that the city had grown and had seen much development over the years, but the city’s planners had failed to provide amenities to the city’s residents.
“When the growth happened, why did the BBMP not manage it properly? This is the question he (Sesharaghavachar) should really be asking the corporators and politicians,” he said.
Read Chitra Subramaniam's comment- Who is an outsider in an Indian city?
Picture provided by Revathy Ashok