Chandrabhan Singh and Ashok Jadhav share their family doctor.

When “elder brother” Singh, 50, is unwell, Jadhav, 45, makes sure to take him to their doctor promptly because, “if one of us is off the road even for a day, two homes are affected.”

Singh is from Uttar Pradesh while Jadhav is a Maharashtrian and the owner of the taxi which Singh drives in Mumbai.

And both of them, who have been in the financial capital for the last three decades, are clear that the communal divide that has been created is “mere politics” and the agenda does not help either Maharashtrians or North Indians.

The two are among thousands of such cross-cultural partnerships that keep the wheels of this megapolis with its 55,000 taxis moving, not just co-existing peacefully but also helping sustain each other’s livelihood.

In the last two weeks, after Raj Thackeray publicly condemned north Indians for having usurped opportunities belonging to “sons of the state”, it is Mumbai’s taxi which has been the soft target, with workers of his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena beating drivers and hurling stones on cabs.

On Wednesday, after news of Raj’s arrest spread, taxis across the city’s central belt refused to take passengers as they feared attacks by MNS workers.

Stones were hurled at parked taxis in Mahim, Khar, Vakola, Gokuldham and Chembur, Mumbai Taximen union leader A L Quadros said.

“When a mob attacks it does not look at what caste or state the driver is from,” he said. “They hit taxis irrespective. The divide is between politicians, for a taxi driver on the street, he is like the common man, he stands for the entire fraternity of drivers.”

... contd.