I think that both Mumbai and Delhi are having the same problems with one difference — in Mumbai the issue has been voiced openly by a regional outfit. Through the way Delhi’s Chief Minister and Lt. Governor have behaved in the past few months, their hidden agendas have come out in open. Why do these issues keep coming back? Today it is Mumbai and Delhi. In future, it could be Chennai and Bangalore.

These cities have become not only national cities but global hubs. People staying there before a particular time cannot claim that they have first right on resources. Companies whose headquarters are located in Mumbai do business all over India. They are located there, but they survive by doing business in other parts of the country. Moreover, migrants have played the most important role in making cities into cosmopolitan places.

There is a false notion that migrants earn money and send it back to their homes. Don’t celebrities like Mukesh and Anil Ambani, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Ruias, Birlas —‘outsiders’, all — enhance the reputation of Mumbai? The way in which the Maharashtra government has allowed Raj Thackeray to engage in hate politics is an example of how Congress and NCP politicians are treading a dangerous path for narrow political gains.

The writer is an MP and general secretary of Samajwadi Party