The right to oppose is not the same as the right to oppress. Political parties in the state have been using the right to strike rather indiscriminately. The left parties predictably are taking to the streets at the drop of a hat. A group (no more than 10 to begin with) of party workers waving flags can abruptly materialize on a busy junction and paralyze traffic for hours on end. An ambulance carrying a patient, an auto rickshaw carrying school children home or an unemployed graduate on the way to her interview; these flash strikes affect one and all. Any attempt by the police to clear the mob is termed as an attempt to impose police raj. The media and political parties go to town shouting about infringement of rights. Amidst all this they forget that the constitution of India, above everything else, guarantees the rights of an individual over any institution or political group. It is the right for you and me to go out and work to earn an honest living and get on with our lives. We have to work and conduct our businesses to educate our children, to heal our sick, to feed our families and secure them a base to dream and achieve.
Off late, our right to work is being trampled upon by the very political parties that are supposed to protect such rights. Ideological differences are the root cause for many strikes. Political mileage is the benefit sought in conducting and organizing such strikes. Resentment in a democracy can take many forms. When Nixon was found interfering with the impeachment process by replacing members of the executive and the judiciary the American public responded by sending thousands of telegrams in protest. A stunned Nixon stepped back. On the contrary our morally bankrupt politicians have dragged democracy to its lowest depths. They pool together a group of dispensable cadre. They incite them to charge up meetings and provoke crowds to act in a manner that endangers lives and property. The tragic consequences are termed as a failure of the ruling party and pressure is brought to bear on the Chief Minister. Private organizations and professional civil servants alike bear a mute witness to this horrific murder committed in the name of democracy. Burning a bus or stoning a government office is not a civilized way of registering protest.
Yet our political parties continue with their carnage. A nation that literally pioneered the civil disobedience and non violence movements has been reduced by its leaders to a sorrow state of playing identity politics. It would seem that anything is game provided you can appear as breaking news in the next TV bulletin. Nobody pauses to ponder at the pointlessness of the whole exercise. It does not occur to them to take a step back and examine the manifold inconveniences that the general public is subjected to. No party is exempt. The party that condemns a strike when in power, resorts to the same senselessness when in the opposition. In West Bengal, Buddhadeb babu after having faced the brunt of Ms Banerjee’s stubbornness in the prestigious TATA NANO cried a halt to the “bandh” culture. He was promptly disciplined by his party leadership which called upon him to retract his statement. Back in A.P, the speaker has been under tremendous strain in the past few days of the monsoon session of the assembly. Finance minister Rosaiah was at pains trying to explain to the members of the opposition to stop their uncalled for pressure tactics on the speaker. His plea fell on deaf ears. We as a society seem to be moving towards a culture that only understands and celebrates the language of excess. Strikes are a symptom of this excessive desire to attract attention at all costs. It is time we put a stop to this culture.
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