Raj Thackeray: Maverick or Hypocrite

Although many regards claims of Raj as a mere hypocrisy, his goal of doing something for regional Marathi’s is unquestionable. His uncanny orator skills and ability of awakening Marathi masses is indisputable. Hence Raj’s notion needs to go through a serious and detailed thought process.

Raj wants reservations for unskilled and skilled jobs in Maharashtra, and to be more specific in Mumbai, for local Marathi people. USA, one of the largest democracies in the world, has this kind of favoritism for its citizens. Even Europe has it. So if Raj demands something like this what’s wrong with it?

I believe there are two erroneous facts in his conviction. First, he is demanding such favoritism at state level rather than at national level which can lead to unprecedented chain reaction in which residents of different states of India are treated unequally, shaking the pillars of Indian democracy. Just imagine every state in India having reservation for jobs for his owns residents. It’s just absurd. Secondly, Mumbai which has became the Karmabhoomi of extremely ambitious people like Amitabh Bachchan will not remain the Karmabhoomi but it will become Marathabhoomi, segregated from rest of India. Besides this, when natives from other states migrate to Mumbai in the hopes of employment and better living, it not only spurs the economic growth of Mumbai and eventually of Maharashtra but it also helps to create innovative business leaders, which by their novel business ideas create more jobs. Growth of Reliance Industries would serve as an excellent example for my view point.

Hence Raj’s idea of favoritism seems like a hypocrisy but one thing is clear that Raj has noble goal to work for the upliftment of Marathi Manus and there is no doubt that Marathi Manus has tremendous potential which can be witnessed by success of veterans like Sachin Tendulkar and Vikram Pandit.

So questions remains what can Raj do for the uplifting of Marathi Manus? There are bunch of good ideas that would pop up in our minds but one's that came to my mind are 1) Raj should work with the leading business houses like Reliance, Tata’s to place more project in Maharashtra which could increase employment opportunities for local Marathi people. 2) He should work with government in bipartisan way for the upliftment of farmers and demand low cost financing from financial institutions for farmers, saving them from greedy money lenders.3) He should also work for increasing awareness of Marathi culture by demanding higher subsidies for production of Marathi movies and events.

Now it is up to Raj to follow same old ideologies of Shiv Sena and become Adolf Hitler for rest of India or work with more innovative ways to become the Mahatma Gandhi of Maharashtra.

Entrepreneurship and Education

From the start of my life, I have been told " If you want to progress in your life you should study". After getting a bachelors in engineering and masters in business, I wonder if this is true or if there is any correlation between Success and Education or Entrepreneurship and Education.

I am very inspired by stories of these four great men 1) Dhirubhai Ambani 2) Bill Gates 3) Steve Jobs 4) Laxmi Mittal. Common thing in these four is that none of them have education above their bachelor’s degree. In fact, three of them left their education when they started their business which made them great. Laxmi Mittal's son, Aditiya who is one of the backbones of Mittal Steel and who pioneered the deal between Arcelor and Mittal has just a bachelor’s degree and not a MBA when in fact he can go to best school in the globe for his MBA and have no constrains either of money or skills.

This leads me to the conclusion that Education and Entrepreneurship are not correlated. But then one question comes to my mind, why do these guys hire graduates from top notch schools to run their businesses or to lead the technical developments in their companies. Answer lies in the fact that educations makes an individual aware of the opportunities one have and the risks that needs to be taken to achieve a particular endeavor. These guys take the advantage of these skills of their employees and with their uncanny risk taking abilities take and manage these risks. Somebody can ask, can’t their employees, who have these skills do the same and be as great as these guys are? Well, the answer is no because education sometimes curtails risk taking abilities. To be as great as these guys first thing that one need is the ability to take uncanny amount of risks. Just imagine ourselves in the position of these four guys when they started their respective companies, and not many of us will follow the same path as these guys but for some exceptions like Warren Buffet and Naryanmurthy who took these risks, we can see the results.

To conclude, I would say power of sighting great opportunities coupled with supernatural risk taking abilities can make the normal person great. Mere education won’t help you to be great. It just gives you a platform to achieve greatness.