Political Diary

New Delhi, 29 May 2010

State Pays Back In Kind

SUPERHIT MOVIE HARTAL, ANYONE?

By Poonam I Kaushish

What is good for the geese is good for the gander. Last week was a lesson of sorts in this acronym for our bandh experts who resort to strikes at the drop of a hat on anything and everything. A payback time wherein the State made plain that the strikers’ freedom ended where its fists began!

Three cheers to the Union Civil Aviation Ministry for coming down with an iron hand on two Air India employee unions, Air Corporation Employees Union and All-India Aircraft Engineers Association who went on a flash strike two days after the heart-wrenching Air India Express aircrash in Mangalore. In an unprecedented order, the unions were de-recognised, their offices sealed, 58 employees sacked and 24 suspended. Not for our strikers to bother that their action resulted in cancellation of 130 flights and a revenue loss of Rs 10-crore.

Why blame them alone? Turn North, South, East or West the story is the same. Bandhs aka hartal have not only become everyday occurrences but also an integral part of our psyche that most people consider it as a holiday! Despite innumerable court rulings banning them. Simply because bandhs are the weapons employed by one and all to serve their cause of the day.  So what it leads to disruption of rail and air traffic, closure of central establishments adding up to a huge loss for the nation.

Last month alone India stood witness to a two-day Maoists bandh in Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, a TRS sponsored Telangana bandh in Andhra, a ‘Bangla bandh’ by the CPM in WBengal, Karnataka’s Gulbarga city held one in support of pourakarmikas, Kashmir’s Kishtwar district too observed one in protest over Prophet Mohammed "blasphemous" cartoons on Facebook and YouTube. The Naga Students' Federation blocked NH-39 to protest the Manipur Government’s "failure" in fulfilling their demands.

The tragedy of India is that holding bandhs has become a lucrative 'business'. The easiest way for the party to get free publicity without any capital investment. It is misused by parties, trade unions and other political factions. A trade unionist bluntly said: "We use bandhs to serve our political ends.  Specially, post a poll debacle to pep up demoralized workers, mobilize men ahead of future polls and revive the organization. “

Never mind the loss to the exchequer. According to a recent Indian Chamber of Commerce report, last month’s 13-Opposition parties one-day bandh against price rise cost hundreds of crores. W Bengal incurred a loss of Rs. 496 crores, Orissa Rs 120 crore, Tripura Rs 80-90 crore, Kerala Rs 90 crore and Jharkhand Rs 110-Rs 120 crore. As for wage loss the less said the better. Bengal registered a loss of Rs 35.8 crore Andhra Rs 26.3 crore, Karnataka Rs 13.2 crore and Tamil Nadu Rs 14.9 crore. Wonder how the strike helped contain inflation.

More. W 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.

India’s labour force is estimated to be 40-50 crore roughly 39% of the country’s population. Think. Apart from the income loss, a bandh deprives crores of people the right to earn their hopelessly meagre source of subsistence. Given that over 70% people earn less than Rs 20 per day. Plainly, a bandh worsens their already deplorable state. And we talk ad nauseum of eradicating poverty. Sic

Bluntly, strikes don't work. If anything, they demean the very cause they are supposed to promote. The parties don’t earn praise from passengers stranded at the airports, railway and bus stations. Shopkeepers who lose their day's earnings don’t down their shutters voluntarily.  Daily wages earners curse them?

Questionably, a bandh is supposed to be in support of a cause. But does it actually serve that cause? What purpose do these bandhs serve? Who do they benefit? What do we gain from them? The answer? Zilch. Except the strikers.

Needless to say, a distinction has to be made between the right to bandh and right to strike. Remember, the strike action evolved as an expression of dissent during the 19th century. The right to strike without disrupting public order is a given in all democracies and is a tool that workers use to negotiate terms of work.

This is not to be confused with bandhs or hartals, which evolved post Independence. A subversion of the original idea of hartal. The action is seldom voluntary. Political parties who call for a strikes enforce it ruthlessly. Forced shutdown of social and economic activity backed by the implicit threat of violence is how bandhs are claimed to be ‘successful’. In most cases, political parties succeed in enforcing their call because people fear for their safety.

Voluntarism has been given a quiet burial. Even essential services are not spared during a hartal. Our polity needs to realize that if agitations and bandhs become a routine feature, it could lead to anarchy and chaos. However, aggrieved a party might be it  has no right to take to streets and pose a threat to public peace, harmony, order and progress. It harms all except the disgruntled politicians and their stooges.

Democracy is neither mobocracy nor a license to create bedlam. It is a fine balance between rights and duties, liberties and responsibilities. One’s freedom pre-supposes another’s responsibilities and liberty. Importantly, bandhs cannot set things right and at the same time it cannot create any psychological impact or pressure on the minds of those people who are sitting at the helm of affairs. Gone are the days when people used to give importance to strikes called by major parties. It was considered a prestige of their own. But now bandhs have lost their edge.

What next? Clearly, our parties and unions should be selective about what they call the bandh for. Perhaps, they should reserve them for special issues. Make a strike voluntary to express our solidarity, our sympathy or our anger. A candle-light vigil, wear black armbands, petition the power-that-be et al. There are million ways to express our disgust. A bandh is not one of them.

The writing on the wall is clear. The need of the hour is to change the dynamics of a bandh and replace it with a new social contract. That gives higher bargaining power to the aam aadmi as opposed to parties or unions who call for strikes, hold the State hostage only to achieve their own selfish interests.

Simultaneously, we need some sort of a political contract between political fronts agreeing they won't use hartals as a tool to promote their political agenda. Else the day is not far when India will resound to announcements:  Superhit movie : Hartal! INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)