Mass Agitations -- Manias and Phobias.

Image courtesy http://www.commondreams.org

Recently I read an article in this blog, describing kerala as "hartal's own country". The author was sarcastically suggesting that we should in fact think of having a hartal department to build strategies on "how to inflict maximum damage to the public on a Hartal day?”

Are we becoming a society of strike maniacs or was it a thinking of an intellectual suffering from a strike phobia? So, as the author indirectly suggests, should we strive for a ban on all kinds of mass agitations? I don’t agree with it at all. Certainly, treatment for headache is not beheading.

Strikes / protests / agitations by the people unpopular/unacceptable policies /actions of Govt /employer /organizations are not only a phenomenon in India. In fact the countries which “enjoy” zero strikes are “enjoying” dictatorships as well.

Definitely I am not arguing for more and more Hartals, on the contrary I agree that hartals have now become a dilapidated political weapon. Blame should be on our politicians who used it for most unjustifiable causes. A very evident example is the two recent Hartals in Kerala against the govt’s decision to borrow money from Asian Development Bank. A most interesting fact in these two Hartals was that it was called by two political parties who till now have not received any support from the people of Kerala to open an account in legislature assemblies. In both of these cases the Hartal exploited the fear of violence in the people. A forceful implementation of Hartal can never be accepted. This is in fact stealing the civil liberties of the public, for whom the protesters claim their fight is for.

Hartal is a mass agitation, institutionalized by Gandhiji as a form of civil disobedience. There after it remains as the most powerful political weapon for articulating socio-political demands.

But a major difference between the civil disobedience organized by Gandhiji and the present day hartal is that

1) The element of self sacrifice is lacking in the present form
2) Instead of persuasion, compulsion by terror is used in present day Hartals. This has pushed even the level headed thinkers to speak and act against hartals.

But this does not justify the allegation that all mass agitations are “weapons of mass destruction” and the call to annihilate all means of mass agitations. This state of mind of some intellectuals against all kinds of protests and agitations will only promote selfishness and a state of Insensitiveness towards the sufferings of their fellow humans. What I oppose is an attempt to hijack the legitimate legal and moral right to protest.

A true democracy must bestow the rights to protest in a peaceful way and we enjoy it too. But the slothfulness in reacting to social issues and intolerance to all forms of mass agitations shows that we still suffer from remnants of colonial slavery. I have seen many people being “nostalgic” of the BritishRaj as “those good old days”, which “unfortunately ended in 1947”. These proponents of British rule promulgate the developments (Railways especially) in India as mercy from the “benevolent” masters, but gracefully forgets that these were developed by the colonizers for the movement of their military and materials and not for the luxury of poor Indians. I have read that Hitler once commented about Indians as “race born to be slaves”. Though it is certainly incorrect, we have our proud heroes who valiantly fought against those robbers of freedom, but it should not be forgotten that a vast majority of Indians needed one Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Not forgetting the contributions of other great leaders) to wake them up from the sleep, nearly after 100 years of colonial invasion.

In the midnight of 14th August in1947 what we gained was not only a political freedom but during the process we learnt about self esteem, pride, sensitiveness to social issues. We were reminded of the rights we have as human beings and about the need to have a fighting spirit to defend it. All major public movements in this country achieved more than its original objectives by grooming the public psyche to standup against subjugation of any kind. Land reforms movement in Kerala not only ended feudalism but it instilled a new light of self esteem in the masses whose pride was battered by the feudal system.

So any attempt silence the social movements (with or with out political reason), may have a larger repercussion, like creating a society of slaves (Political or economic slavery). One argument put forward by the apologists of the system is that every strikes/protest incurs a huge loss of business hours. It is a pity to project the very purpose of life is to provide an environment conducive for economic growth. A true development has to be multidimensional and should involve socio-political dimensions along with economic growth. Living with pride and prestige is not a privilege of rich alone.

Politicians of our country should understand that they are responsible for the loss of credibility of a most powerful weapon of mass agitation by its untimely use for unjustifiable causes. If this continues the most powerful public weapon, mass agitation, will be lost for ever and it may pave way for something similar to Nazism. Though now there is general consensus among the public that national emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975 is the black mark on the shining 50 years of Indian democracy, it was in fact initially welcomed by many people as proper step to instill a discipline. The tide of tiring strikes and shutdowns prevailed at that time might have triggered this initial reaction, though in later years it was proved too costly.

But again none of the adversities of the means of mass agitation will ever justify a call to annihilate it. There was a lot of hue and cry from a section about the manner in which the people of Kerala and some other parts of India reacted to the brutal execution of ousted Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. But I feel proud to be born in a society which has still not lost its powers to react. To those who still yell for an unresponsive, castrated society, I dedicate the famous poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller (about the inactivity of German intellectuals during the Nazi rise to power).

“First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left
to speak up for me.”

Kerala the Hartal's Own Country

Kerala the Hartal's Own Country

Today December 14^th morning 11.30 in the clock, This writer is sitting before his laptop. He has nothing else to do because this day is a “Hartal” declared by the ruling communist party. Dear reader if you don’t understand what this “hartal” is there is another word “bandh” which was the original one.

When the court banned the bandh as unconstitutional, the term was changed process remaining the same! The reader who is not familiar with the conditions remaining in this country naturally doesn’t understand the word bandh either. It is difficult to find an English word that is equivalent to bandh. Hence a brief description of what is hartal or bandh is given in the following paragraph.

Generally a bandh is declared by a political party in protest of something, a government policy or an event that is objectionable to it. The percentage of paralysis the bandh has inflicted to the nation is considered directly proportional to the success of the bandh! Political parties invariably do a lot of home work to make the strike a success.

Their henchmen are engaged in laying traps all through the roads to take “revenge” on anybody engaged in traveling. Death of two wheeler riders in the early morning of a bandh day is common news. The culprits go scot-free as they are doing a great service to the government by making the strike a success!

When a day is declared as a bandh or hartal, no one except party workers are allowed to go out of their home. Traveling in vehicles is strictly prohibited! Why this sort of cruelty done to general public as they already have sufficient problem? Such a question doesn’t arise as political parties exist on muscle power and it is easy to flex muscles on weaker sections- that is general public.

It is estimated that the loss to Kerala’s economy due to today’s strike seven thousand million rupees. It is also interesting to note that the government employees who absent on such days get their pay as usual. Their absence can be adjusted as eligible leave. The real losers are the laborers who earn daily wages, without any “eligible leaves” who will compensate them? Their families starve to keep the strikes going!

Think of the poor people who are in urgent need of travel in a country where traveling is considered a crime. This “crime” during a bandh day can attract even death penalty; there are a lot of unfortunates who suffer, who are bed ridden for rest of their life as they were engaged in this serious crime of traveling. Who on earth will compensate them? The perpetrators of these crimes continue their jobs as usual.

Production loss to the nation is not counted by the ruling government as “there is no bird fly over political power” and national priority comes not even secondary. The writer of this article had a stroll outside to see how the bandh works! There were a lot pitiable scenes, the foreign tourists who were lured to this country, boasting it as “god’s own one” were wandering without food or even water as no shops were permitted to keep open. The poor people accustomed to cold climates were walking in hot sun with heavy luggage as no vehicles were permitted to ply. Wonderful form of hospitality! The government can really proud of the good things it does to promote the good “celebration” that is the bandh. Good show! Keep it up!

The article could be completed on the next day as the response of the media also had to be included, some of the papers ignored as they had other fish to fry, some of them praised it as a great and unprecedented success.

Only sane voice that could be read was in Malayala Manorama the largest selling news paper. It exhibited a scene from a Chennai street, which was beautiful and as crowded as in any other day (remember Tamilnadu is Kerala’s neighboring state). It’s heading as strike only in three states, sporadic violence in Kerala. Its editorial says “the bandh makes people of Kerala “idiots” once more and bandh violates basic human rights”. This writer thanks Mr. Mammen Varghese (printer and publisher) for his patriotism and courage.

Yes dear Mr. Mammen Kerala is a deep well and the people living here are mere tad poles ruled by grown up frogs. Mere frogs, those are ignorant what is going on outside. Who is the biggest of them all? We (the twice idiots) can only guess!

The “Business Line” highlighted the paralysis, the bandh inflicted to the economy and billions of rupees held up as the strike affected the banking operations. The claim of union leaders -as usual after every strike- “protest a success” was also given by the side. Who gain from paralyzing the economy of one’s own nation is another matter!

The left front claimed the bandh as “great success” and warned the ruling Indian Government of harsher steps if the liberalization policies are not rolled back!

If the steps of protests are to be made harsher, only way remains is to storm in the houses of ordinary people and vandalize it because all other atrocities are liberally practiced in the name of bandh!

Throwing stones at passengers, destroying vehicles and properties, setting traps on the road to kill poor two wheeler riders who travel for a living etc are passe. The “responsible” government can do one more thing. It can create a department under a secretary with some officials and scientists under some IPS officials. The department can be asked to do some serious research on the subject “how to inflict maximum damage to the public on a bandh day”. That department can be named as 'bandh department'!!!

The menace of bandh or hartal can be treated only with such radical steps, as “Ushnam ushnena shanthi” theory in Sanskrit only works. Ushnam = Heat. Ushnena = By heat

Shanthi = vanishes or get amicable. Meaning extreme steps alone settles extreme conditions! Thank You.