YET ANOTHER WASTEFUL DAY AND A WOEFUL DAY, TOO
The bandh is over and has caused a great deal of stress to some, a little stress to many and has given political mileage to the ones that called for it. The ruling party has denounced it. But the ruling party also has called for bandhs frequently in the past when they were not in power and they thought they were justified in doing so. This is the sad tale of it that has vitiated our corrupt polity of reckless individuals and an irresponsible mass of opportunistic followers who are taking our country backward by the day. The financial losses apart, massive inconvenience is caused by halting the civic machinery for twelve hours. It cannot be justified under any pretext and I say this with full conviction born out of experience and from a totally apolitical stance in life.
To stop work is to entertain tamas, the lowest quality of the human system. It is work that builds a system and abstinence from it merely degenerates it further. Thus, the calling of bandhs are not only unproductive but fail in their so-called mission to achieve the objective of making a sufficient protest against misgovernance of any kind. It is a still-born babe that breathes not the vital air of life and freedom.
A democracy is ruled by the people's mandate. But elections are held every five years, although, there are multiple tiers of the governmental set-up that require elections to be held periodically which makes for a more frequent people's mandate at these different levels. Despite this, it becomes necessary for all political parties to sense the pulse of the polity by calling for frequent strikes (bandhs) when they can gauge arithmetically their hoodlum hold on the masses. After all, in underdeveloped and developing countries this is the typical way to find out where a party stands in terms of its eventual election management. In developed nations this pulse of the people is fed in regularly to all by market research organisations whose data gathering and analysis thereof keep the parties well informed as to the latest trends in the polity with regard to popularity of politicians and their parties.
However, such an enlightened way of data feeding and management of the election campaign thereof has not yet become the norm here in India where old-fashioned methods are resorted to that stall life for a day causing inordinate difficulty for all.
'Bandh' may be a post-independence term but the phenomena dates back to pre-independence times when Gandhiji used to frequently paralyse the civic administrative machinery of the British and the nation with it by calling for a 'hartal' which was basically a strike or a 'bandh'. This he did to lodge his protest against certain measures adopted by the alien government of the day or by way of part of his broader campaign of civil disobedience to attain to self-governance for India. India, dependent and reeling under the crushing heels of a corrupt, gluttonous and malevolent colonial government, was morally obligated to resist the draconian laws that were in operation then and this she ought to do by refusing to comply with such unjust laws. This was the line of argument of Gandhiji and his rationale for the 'hartal' for a day. The Mahatma was convinced that such civic pressure of non-compliance would bring the government to its knees and compel it to consider the just demands of the subjects of the Crown regarding greater autonomy and eventual sovereign self-rule.
But those were different times when a nation, crushed under foreign yoke, was seeking deliverance unto freedom. The call to halt all activity that helped the colonial machinery to function in potent suppression of native aspirations was morally justified and the whole nation saw no wrong in responding to the call of the Mahatma. The British ruthlessly suppressed all such seditious activities under the cover of their draconian laws and put tens of thousands behind bars. But the Gandhian movement kept gaining ground for it had an ideology, a philosophy and a sublime objective inspiring it and guiding it. But times have changed now and what obtains in the name of 'bandh' today defies those noble aspirations of pre-independence days.
...to be continued...
Written by Sugata Bose
The bandh is over and has caused a great deal of stress to some, a little stress to many and has given political mileage to the ones that called for it. The ruling party has denounced it. But the ruling party also has called for bandhs frequently in the past when they were not in power and they thought they were justified in doing so. This is the sad tale of it that has vitiated our corrupt polity of reckless individuals and an irresponsible mass of opportunistic followers who are taking our country backward by the day. The financial losses apart, massive inconvenience is caused by halting the civic machinery for twelve hours. It cannot be justified under any pretext and I say this with full conviction born out of experience and from a totally apolitical stance in life.
To stop work is to entertain tamas, the lowest quality of the human system. It is work that builds a system and abstinence from it merely degenerates it further. Thus, the calling of bandhs are not only unproductive but fail in their so-called mission to achieve the objective of making a sufficient protest against misgovernance of any kind. It is a still-born babe that breathes not the vital air of life and freedom.
A democracy is ruled by the people's mandate. But elections are held every five years, although, there are multiple tiers of the governmental set-up that require elections to be held periodically which makes for a more frequent people's mandate at these different levels. Despite this, it becomes necessary for all political parties to sense the pulse of the polity by calling for frequent strikes (bandhs) when they can gauge arithmetically their hoodlum hold on the masses. After all, in underdeveloped and developing countries this is the typical way to find out where a party stands in terms of its eventual election management. In developed nations this pulse of the people is fed in regularly to all by market research organisations whose data gathering and analysis thereof keep the parties well informed as to the latest trends in the polity with regard to popularity of politicians and their parties.
However, such an enlightened way of data feeding and management of the election campaign thereof has not yet become the norm here in India where old-fashioned methods are resorted to that stall life for a day causing inordinate difficulty for all.
'Bandh' may be a post-independence term but the phenomena dates back to pre-independence times when Gandhiji used to frequently paralyse the civic administrative machinery of the British and the nation with it by calling for a 'hartal' which was basically a strike or a 'bandh'. This he did to lodge his protest against certain measures adopted by the alien government of the day or by way of part of his broader campaign of civil disobedience to attain to self-governance for India. India, dependent and reeling under the crushing heels of a corrupt, gluttonous and malevolent colonial government, was morally obligated to resist the draconian laws that were in operation then and this she ought to do by refusing to comply with such unjust laws. This was the line of argument of Gandhiji and his rationale for the 'hartal' for a day. The Mahatma was convinced that such civic pressure of non-compliance would bring the government to its knees and compel it to consider the just demands of the subjects of the Crown regarding greater autonomy and eventual sovereign self-rule.
But those were different times when a nation, crushed under foreign yoke, was seeking deliverance unto freedom. The call to halt all activity that helped the colonial machinery to function in potent suppression of native aspirations was morally justified and the whole nation saw no wrong in responding to the call of the Mahatma. The British ruthlessly suppressed all such seditious activities under the cover of their draconian laws and put tens of thousands behind bars. But the Gandhian movement kept gaining ground for it had an ideology, a philosophy and a sublime objective inspiring it and guiding it. But times have changed now and what obtains in the name of 'bandh' today defies those noble aspirations of pre-independence days.
...to be continued...
Written by Sugata Bose
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