Hey..
On September 29, India witnessed another strike organized by the Left which stalled the entire country, almost. While the intent of this post is not to debate for or against the demands that led to the strike, it is to condone the horrendous action called the strike or 'bundh'.
Strike is one of the most inappropriate forms of protest displayed to claim any demand. What good can possibly come when millions of lives just come to a sudden halt one whole day? The whole concept seems lousy. Most of the strikes today are just to promote incompetence and laziness by political parties that have no ideologies or principles anyway.
Yes, people are the real power. And yes, government is of, by & for the people. It is the job of any government to listen to the people and make decisions that affect the lives positively. And in any form of government there will always be shortcomings that one has to face and fight against. No system is perfect. But that doesnt mean that you push a pause button on the whole nation to place demands and attract attention.
While the Marxian philosophy that advocates hartals claims that if workers stop working then the employer stops earning, the principle applies here as well. When workers and government servants stop working the loss is for the employer - which in the case of democracy - is PEOPLE. So it will be the people who will be losers and not anyone else. India being a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO) is forced to permit worker union strikes (because they are so-called best way to express the suffering of workers). And I believe this whole idea that we need to permit strikes because of the ILO membership is simply idiotic. It only provides a loophole which allows a manipulating minority to hold the govt all citizens in ransom.
The father of our nation believed in non-violence and non-cooperation. He advocated silent struggles and protest forms that didnt anyone to take up guns or kill. That was to gain freedom from an oppressor and the whole nation was behind this. Whereas now, it is not the case. When any of these strikes are called, all that happens is breaking down and looting of shops, road-rokos stopping ongoing traffic and in the process killing (,literally,) people who need medical attention etc., disrupting normal lives of normal people who arent connected anyway with the claims of the 'bundh', causing millions of rupees of loss - the Mahatma would most definitely not accept this form of protest.
While India has a vague law preventing organizing these massive rallies that disrupt essential services, it is mostly still a law in paper. My question is, why only essential services ? - any services should not be distrupted. The political parties be it ShivSena or the CPI/M get away after all the mess that they create in form of strikes. What these people do not understand is that by causing this standstill they inflict huge losses and essentially push this nation backward and it causes no good. It is simply mind boggling to think that a minority of these political activists can hold the majority of the law abiding citizens to ransom by calling the 'refusal-to-work'..
Unfortunately in a democracy like a India a stern action is always tough to take. Because a governing party today is an opposition party at some point. And they have to organize such political stunts. The latest strike is even more ironical that it was promoted by the Left against the government of which they are still a part of ! How can the UPA government take action against the CPI/M without risking the possibility of losing the reins of power ?
Strikes, hartals, 'bundhs', , road-rokos have become meaningless in India. It only gives people an additional unwanted holiday and causes loss of millions of person hours of work. India as a nation cannot compete with the countries of Japan and the like irrespective of all the manpower when we are forced into these kind of unwanted and preventable losses. Humanpower is precious. We cant afford to waste it by putting it to doing nothing.
If parties dont realize, governments dont realize this, the people have to. Lets not wait to yell against these theatrics until we lose a loved one because of lack of essential services during a strike. Lets act now. No vote to a party/person that promotes these strikes. No vote to a party/person that cuts trees, breaks bridges, burns buildings/buses, stops trains, halts traffic. We need to strike them out of power.
Let us strike against the strike by not supporting them.
'Cause after all the progress the we make and live in democracy that the world cherishes, if we still end up stalling our lives every now and then because of these strikes, we have none but ourselves to blame.
Ciao..
On September 29, India witnessed another strike organized by the Left which stalled the entire country, almost. While the intent of this post is not to debate for or against the demands that led to the strike, it is to condone the horrendous action called the strike or 'bundh'.
Strike is one of the most inappropriate forms of protest displayed to claim any demand. What good can possibly come when millions of lives just come to a sudden halt one whole day? The whole concept seems lousy. Most of the strikes today are just to promote incompetence and laziness by political parties that have no ideologies or principles anyway.
Yes, people are the real power. And yes, government is of, by & for the people. It is the job of any government to listen to the people and make decisions that affect the lives positively. And in any form of government there will always be shortcomings that one has to face and fight against. No system is perfect. But that doesnt mean that you push a pause button on the whole nation to place demands and attract attention.
While the Marxian philosophy that advocates hartals claims that if workers stop working then the employer stops earning, the principle applies here as well. When workers and government servants stop working the loss is for the employer - which in the case of democracy - is PEOPLE. So it will be the people who will be losers and not anyone else. India being a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO) is forced to permit worker union strikes (because they are so-called best way to express the suffering of workers). And I believe this whole idea that we need to permit strikes because of the ILO membership is simply idiotic. It only provides a loophole which allows a manipulating minority to hold the govt all citizens in ransom.
The father of our nation believed in non-violence and non-cooperation. He advocated silent struggles and protest forms that didnt anyone to take up guns or kill. That was to gain freedom from an oppressor and the whole nation was behind this. Whereas now, it is not the case. When any of these strikes are called, all that happens is breaking down and looting of shops, road-rokos stopping ongoing traffic and in the process killing (,literally,) people who need medical attention etc., disrupting normal lives of normal people who arent connected anyway with the claims of the 'bundh', causing millions of rupees of loss - the Mahatma would most definitely not accept this form of protest.
While India has a vague law preventing organizing these massive rallies that disrupt essential services, it is mostly still a law in paper. My question is, why only essential services ? - any services should not be distrupted. The political parties be it ShivSena or the CPI/M get away after all the mess that they create in form of strikes. What these people do not understand is that by causing this standstill they inflict huge losses and essentially push this nation backward and it causes no good. It is simply mind boggling to think that a minority of these political activists can hold the majority of the law abiding citizens to ransom by calling the 'refusal-to-work'..
Unfortunately in a democracy like a India a stern action is always tough to take. Because a governing party today is an opposition party at some point. And they have to organize such political stunts. The latest strike is even more ironical that it was promoted by the Left against the government of which they are still a part of ! How can the UPA government take action against the CPI/M without risking the possibility of losing the reins of power ?
Strikes, hartals, 'bundhs', , road-rokos have become meaningless in India. It only gives people an additional unwanted holiday and causes loss of millions of person hours of work. India as a nation cannot compete with the countries of Japan and the like irrespective of all the manpower when we are forced into these kind of unwanted and preventable losses. Humanpower is precious. We cant afford to waste it by putting it to doing nothing.
If parties dont realize, governments dont realize this, the people have to. Lets not wait to yell against these theatrics until we lose a loved one because of lack of essential services during a strike. Lets act now. No vote to a party/person that promotes these strikes. No vote to a party/person that cuts trees, breaks bridges, burns buildings/buses, stops trains, halts traffic. We need to strike them out of power.
Let us strike against the strike by not supporting them.
'Cause after all the progress the we make and live in democracy that the world cherishes, if we still end up stalling our lives every now and then because of these strikes, we have none but ourselves to blame.
Ciao..
8 comments:
Eye opener blog....
They strikers have no rights to make the country for ransom. It will not be acceptable for anything. I thing we need to think in another angle also. In the current situation dialogue meeting, fasting and submitting the memorandum are not accepted by the governments even for genuine cause. In this case strike found to be effective to tool and has become a necessary evil.
So we should also reject the party or the government which is not hearing the genuine problems of the working class and necessitating the strike. We should show the “Power of Democracy”.
shiva again good post.
Will court/cong govt have the guts to put a penalty for the losses ?
Well said Siva. Most of the time, its the courts that step in and save the masses from this menace with the legislature and executive looking on as mute spectators.
Nice blog...Thanks god these strikes do not matter much for Private Companies...I cannot imagine myself telling the client that there is schedule slippage because our ruling party insulted its coalition partner...
I really like the idea of Strike to Strike...Govt officials should refuse to participate in the strike and our police machinery should give them all support...
If they cannot mobilise people, there is no strike...
..No vote to a party/person that promotes these strikes. No vote to a party/person that cuts trees, breaks bridges, burns buildings/buses, stops trains, halts traffic..
in the current scenario...its same as "Do not Vote"
Siva,
Excellent post. The problem posed is deeper and the strikes are just a small side act. The core problem is that there is no place in today's Indian political scenario for an idealogical party. Nobody is asking for an ideal party but just an idealogical party.
There is no one accountable for the mess that these strikes create. Be they by the far left or the far right! Take the simple case of the BJP. When they were in power, they were extremely critical of the walk-outs that the opposition parties were indulging in stating that it was affecting the functioning of the cabinet.
And when they get into the opposition, what do they do? They stage walkouts galore affecting the functioning. So, where did their idealogy go when they moved to the opposition. The problem is that walk-outs in parliment and strikes make front-page headlines. Every munuswamy and kandaswamy will know about it.
Of course, this is to be expected, in a country where Rajaji's Swatantara party died and Udayamoorthy lost an election. Votes are what count. People who need to vote, do not wish to exercise their electorate and so possibly feel insecure about questioning these strikes.
This is what possibly needs to be done,
Strike one - Your party is warned
Strike two - Your party is severely warned about the implications.
Strike three - You are out! Your party cannot contest the next election!
Too stringent maybe. But, it will at least make these parties think twice ( or should I say thrice ) before calling for a strike/bandh!
I agree with Raman's prescriptions. But the bane of our country itself has been democracy. That has come to mean for many people rights without responsibilities. So there will always be protests if severe proscriptions are made on anything since the complacency about our lax rules and even more lax implementation has already seeped in enough into the fabric of society. Food for thought, perhaps or a precursor to another post on this :-). What say you, Siva?
tharani - thanks.
Ganesh - Unfortunately this is our situation. We are a democracy, but we still need depend on courts for taking action!!
Eswar - yep!
Rags - My next blog is on this subject of private companies and labor laws :)
Dinesh - but you shd also note that some of these strikes are organized by highly educated people.!
Raman- yes.. this is the nation that shunned Rajaji or Udayamoorthy. Is it that we are missing something that the voting masses dont ?!
thennavan - thanks. my next blog will be on a similar line..
Siva,
Nice topic - though it is just a bit worrisome that the 'Strike Pioneer' like CPI is being clubbed with the nascent Shivsena :P
Raman,
Good idea - but you know the loop-holes very well, the same party will add a 'A' or 'K' or some other letter of the alphabet and contest the election.....
Doomed we are !!
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