Ban on bandh

PLAIN SPEAK / RAJA M

[ SUNDAY, AUGUST 01, 2004 12:44:35 AM ]

I wish the Mumbai High Court that recently slammed a Rs 20-lakh fine on political
parties for engineering a bandh had fined them Rs 20 crore.

This goes a bit nearer to what India loses when politicians shamelessly exploit
someone else�s misery to cause more misery. The All India Association of Industries
says a bandh in city such as Mumbai costs Rs 100 crore daily, a statewide bandh
costs Rs 200 crore and a nationwide bandh costs Rs 1,000 crore.

A fine of Rs 20 lakh seems not even a slap on the wrist, but a tap on a finger. And
let-off politicians are whining.

A democratic right to protest comes attached with the rightful way to protest.
Shutting down a city or a nation fits neither in the latter category nor in the
constitution. The right to dissent does not mean destroying discipline and right to
work.

A bandh in no way alleviates the suffering of those whose cause the proponents of
bandhs supposedly espouse. Yet some politicians protest a perfectly wise and long
overdue judicial decision, one that a government ought to have passed long ago. But
increasingly, the judiciary has to tame the political beast, exercising the
constitutional balance when one wheel of democracy dangerously goes out of line.

The court acted on a public interest litigation petition filed by the citizen group
AGNI (Action for Governance and Networking in India). The petitioners included
Maharashtra�s former cabinet secretary B G Deshmukh and advertising legend Alyque
Padamsee.

Hopefully, the wisdom of the Supreme Court expands the ruling into national good.
For too long we have let unscrupulous political parties tune whimsical bandh width
for more media bytes and flexing muscle.

Despite its supposedly �voluntary� pretensions, every bandh is by nature

intimidating and coercive. No shopkeeper wants to defy stones, and people remain
home than be stranded in a blocked railway track.

Security has to be heightened, the government gets distracted and an entire

population misses work. Unlike a strike where a protesting work force chooses to
lay down its tools of trade, everyone is implicitly forced to shut shop in a bandh,
or face political rowdies.

Pare the bandh down to its core motive and we get power stomping, publicity-hungry
political dimwits exposing their immaturity and abusing our democracy. India
deserves better. We need to think of working more intensely and for longer hours,
than even think of missing a working day.

Only a lazy, insensitive country can tolerate a bandh, forgetting the plight of
millions of daily wage earners. The Mumbai High Court decision helps rescue us from
irresponsible politicians. Their lacking persuasive skills to solve any problem
does not mean they can make the entire nation part of their essentially publicity
addiction problem.