Today was a trade union called bandh across India, supported in West Bengal by the Left parties and the Congress, opposed by BJP and TMC playing the wild card.
Two instances flashed back in my mind. One was in the mid eighties, when two of my overseas business associates landed in Kolkata. A ‘bandh’ was announced just the previous evening, when the visitors had already boarded the flight. I bailed myself by hiring an ambulance, picking my startled friends who landed anywhere in India for the first time and lodged them at the Taj Hotel. They were taken aback by a statewide protest and lamented at the loss of their one working day.
The other instance was when the courts declared bandhs illegal and I ran around clicking pictures of probably the last ever spectacle of a desolate Howrah Bridge and the otherwise busy flyovers. My haste was grossly misplaced. Bandh saw itself into the English lexicon in the 80s and can healthily remain in its place forever, at least in West Bengal!
Supreme court and High Courts have declared bandhs illegal and have even fined a few political parties for causing loss of man-days, calling bandhs indiscriminately. The nation could be losing Rs.25000 crores and West Bengal Rs. 1000 crores on any bandh day, for loss of productivity.
Bandhs have always been a show of strength, with those defying the diktat beaten up, their vehicles damaged and in the villages, their families ostracized. Sometimes, strangely so, the state governments opposed to the central one, calls for the bandh and with the police and administration at its disposal, ensures complete success to beat their chests the following day.
West Bengal does not require a reason for bandhs. May any party call it, it just has to be called, for its citizens to sleep a little longer, stay at home and kill another day, like most other days. The parties too are clever, calling bandhs to tag with weekends or holidays, making it irresistible to the citizens to deny themselves another holiday.
It is not any party or a state that I would comment upon, but dare criticize on the lack of understanding of loss of man-days and how it could affect our economy. The dream of make in India, cannot materialize into reality, unless its citizens wake to the clarion call with zeal and spirit.
I went today to my workplace as usual and the traffic was scarce. Most shops were closed with the few visible people with sticks monitoring every movement. I was wondering about the plight of people arriving in the city and as to how many would have had the opportunity to travel in an Ambulance, without being sick!
If a bandh means a day of no work, well, it also means it is just another day!
