Kamal Nath, a new Raj Thackerey in the making?

Immediately after taking the oath of office and secrecy, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath started playing usual divide and rule politics of the Congress. On Monday, on his very first day in office, he passed an order to industries that they would get incentives only if they employ 70% staff from MP.

At his first conference as CM, Kamalnath said, “Our schemes of providing incentives of investment will only be imposed after 70% people from MP get employment. People from states like Bihar and UP come here and local people don’t get jobs. I have signed the file for this.”

CM Kamalnath also announced the opening of four garment parks in Madhya Pradesh, and also added the clause of local jobs rider. He said, “We have laid the first condition to generate jobs for local people and only those industries that promote jobs for locals will get incentives.”

No job for outsiders in Madhya Pradesh, says a man who himself is not from MP. He was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his Bachelor degree in Law from DAV College, Kanpur of Kanpur University. If Kamal Nath wants to apply his divide and rule formula in the state in letter and spirit then he should start with himself. He should resign from the post of CM immediately, and give it to Scindia who is from MP. Madhya Pradesh has always been a welcoming state. It’s one of the few states where there is no discrimination against people of other states living in MP, but now Congress is back to power and they have already started working in the direction of ruining the same.

First Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor launched a tirade against people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar living in Gujarat, and his goons also launched an attack against the poor factory workers of these states, and now Congress CM Kamal Nath also seems to be following the line of Alpesh Thakor and Raj Thackeray. Yes, it is no exaggeration to compare people like CM Kamalnath and Alpesh Thakor with xenophobic Raj Thackeray.

This local vs other states politics reiterates two things: First, Congress cannot be trusted at all. Secondly, they have not learnt any lesson from the humiliating defeat in 2014, and are reaffirming their trust in their tried and tasted divide and rule formula.

The Congress grabbed the political power in the state by making unrealistic promises and they know that very well. The reality of their unrealistic promises will be exposed, and the voters of MP will kick them out of power the next time around. In order to remain in power for a longer duration, they want to invoke regionalism. This is a wrong trend and must be condemned unequivocally. And also this ‘Protection’ and not the promotion of ‘Competition’ will ruin MP economically. Industries will leave the state because the private sector prefers to employ the best of workers instead of the forced local manpower of the state. This will also harm the political prospects of Congress and its allies in forthcoming elections in the states of UP and Bihar.