Where are you from?

Let me write the disclaimer first: I am not a Raj Thackeray or MNS or Shiv Sena fan, neither do I have any connection with them. Personally, I don't see the reason for the hue and cry over Mrs. Jaya Bachchan's recent comment in the music launch of a Hindi film, "Hum UP ke log hain, humein Hindi mein baat karni chahiye" (We are from UP, we should talk in Hindi). It was a Hindi movie after all! If these guy had their way, they would make it mandatory for all hindi movies to be dubbed in Marathi before release in Maharashtra. Won't even try to find a reason for their actions, as I don't think they apply logic.

But Jayaji, tell me something: You are from a fairly well known family in Jabalpur / Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), and your first few acting ventures, all in Bengali movies, are well documented in Kolkata. So is your move to Bombay, and subsequent achievement of stardom and marriage to Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. Now, how the hell did you become "UP ke log"? Your family has Mr. Bachchan Sr. who is from UP but spent few years in Kolkata, and then settled in Mumbai; you, yourself a Bengali now settled in Mumbai; your daughter-in-law is from Karnataka and has represented India internationally in a beauty paegent: you could have projected your family as a perfect example of national integration. But instead, you choose to make off-hand, ill-thought comments. You are a Rajya Sabha member - you should say "We are the people of India, let's speak the success language of India".