POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 3 October 2009

Strike-A-Day-Nation

BANDH KARO YEH NATAK!

By Poonam I Kaushish

From Lokmanya Tilak’s “Swaraj is my birth right” to ‘strike is my birth right’. Indeed, over the decades India has trudged the treacherous protest road to become a strike-a-day nation. Wherein a person’s freedom ends at the tip of the others nose! 

Think. Last week air operations at several airports were thrown into disarray thanks to nearly 150 disgruntled executive Air India pilots going on enmass "sick leave," over the cash-strapped airline’s decision to slash their productivity-linked incentives by 50-70%. No matter that the four-day strike cost the nation over Rs 800 crores. The end? Status quo ante.

A repeat of Jet Airways 400-odd pilots going on mass "sick leave" two weeks earlier. Their cause? Reinstate two colleagues, sacked for trying to establish a union. The dispute was settled only after the airline succumbed to the pilots demands. Earlier in the year doctors in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka too resorted to strong-arm tactics. The latest to join the strike brigade were IIT professors.

Importantly, what makes these cases strikingly apart from strikes in general is that it’s for the first time that white-collared workers have resorted to what was the favourite tool of their blue-collared brethren. The only difference being that instead of going on a strike they resorted to en mass sick leave. Particularly, as the law bars “officials” from indulging in blackmailing tactics as they are a part and parcel of the management.

It is most shameful that pilots who get astronomical salary-allowances (Rs 4-6 lakhs per month) should hold airlines and passengers hostage. Putting the flying janata through untold misery, missed connections, saying goodbyes to holidays, appointments, medical help et al. Given, that all these years they have enjoyed good times. A little sacrifice during hard times would not have made much difference to their hefty pay-packet but would speak volumes about their commitment to work, responsibility as educated professionals to ensure their dedication and diligence to the job and the ethics entailed. This applies to doctors, engineers and educationists as well.

Have they all forgotten their duty as public servants? Primarily to serve the aam janata. Considering that their salary and other creature comforts come from the tax-payers hard-earned money. The less said the better of the rampant ghoos-khori. Without greasing palms no work gets done.

Tragically, turn North- South, East-West, any mohalla, city or State on any given day, the story is the same. Some disgruntled group is on strike to protest some grievance or failure leading to life coming to a standstill. Call it a bandh, hartal, rasta roko, chakka jam what you may matters little. Raising a moot point: Are strikes actually expression of freedom or are they means of suppressing fundamental rights in a democracy?

Arguably, not a few would simply shrug it off with “sab chalta hai attitude, this is Mera Bharat Mahan at its rudest and crassest best.”  Many would assert ki pharak painda hai. But the fact is that these strikes have exposed how dangerous this game has become. No longer can we dismiss it as a system’s failure.

Think. West Bengal has the maximum bandhs, an average of 40-50 per year. Followed by Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. In Kerala a single day's shutdown costs the State Rs 700 crore. Divided by the State’s population it translates to Rs 233 per Keralite. Manipur experienced 52 bandhs and 43 blockades in the 2007-08 that cost the State Rs 504.32 crore and Rs 236.68 crore respectively.  Worse, the three National Highways passing through the North-East witnessed economic blockades for 139 days from April 2006-December 2007, wherein Sikkim lost Rs 7 crore per day.

According to the Union Labour Ministry, 386 strikes and 279 lockouts took place in 2007.  While 9,52,000 workers participated, over 95,000 workers were affected due to lockouts and over 8.36 million mandays lost. Analyse the cost the nation suffered!

Clearly, part of the current paradox is explained by the changed notion of strikes aka hartal aka bandh as a form of protest. The original concept was centred on the logic that the only way for a group of disempowered people to shake the system was to agitate. From a simple gherao for more wages to a voluntary hartal against policy decisions. But slowly perversion set in. A strike could be effective only if stoppage of work could not be overcome easily by the system. Therefore, the strikers use their power base, including violence, to stall anything that spells change from the set routine. 

Look at the irony. On one hand we talk of India as the next super power with a strong economy on par with countries like Japan, Korea and China. On the other we fail to realize that strikes are a hindrance to achieving this goal. In no civilised nations do political parties or trade unions dare to justify deaths and severe distress of citizens as necessary to voice protest. Any call for a bandh should come from the suffering aam aadmi not from netas or corporate-executive fat cats.

Recall, in 1997 the Kerala High Court held that bandhs were illegal and people could not be forced to be a part of these. In 2003 the Supreme Court endorsed this and added, “Government employees had no fundamental, legal, moral or equitable right” to go on strikes whatever the cause, “just or unjust”. Pointing out that aggrieved employees had other options available to them, the Bench opined: Strikes as a weapon is mostly misused, which results in chaos and total maladministration.

The Apex Court’s judgment also upheld the Kerala Court’s fine distinction between hartal and a bandh.  It held that hartal was a form of passive resistance and a call for it did not involve force. While a bandh was an enforced muscle flexing act which interfered with the freedom and fundamental right of citizens.

True, the Constitution guarantees one the right to protest, but it does not guarantee one the right to infringe upon others rights. Unfortunately, our strikers fail to realize that strikes negate the basic concept of democracy. These are just a camouflage for non-performance, self-glorification, to gain sympathy or wriggle out of working hard.

Clearly, the time has come to take a leaf out of the US law, wherein there is no constitutional right to make a speech on a highway, so as to cause a crowd to gather and obstruct traffic. The right to assembly is to be so exercised as not to conflict with other lawful rights, interests and comfort of the individual or the public and public order. Also, the municipality has the power to impose regulations in order to assure the safety and convenience of the people. And the power to break up a meeting if the speaker undertakes incitement to riot or breach of peace.

In the UK, the Seditious Meeting Act, 1817 prohibits meetings of more than 50 persons within a mile of Westminster Hall during the sitting of Parliament. In Japan they strike in a different way. A case in point. At a shoe factory the workers showed their protest by producing only one shoe out of the pairs they were meant to manufacture so that though the output was not out, the production was going on.

Unfortunately, in India a strike is the weapon of the bully. How long can we allow this? Time to stop giving into the strong-arm tactics. There is need to hold a referendum where people decide what is right or wrong.  Remember, paralysing the State, black-mailing corporates, industries to get attention and policy reversals only exasperates the public and inconveniences them, cuts off the money flow, shoos off investors, and endangers their own jobs.

The country needs good governance and economic growth. The right of the citizen is paramount. The question we all need to ask is: Can we afford strikes at all, leave aside for what purpose it may have been called? At some point we have to stand up and bellow, "Bandh karo ye natak!"--- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)