How many more victims?

Since long I haven't written a blog except "Inflation - The Apocalypse of Doom", so maybe I am a little rusty, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Like any other blogger I do love comments too, whether they are good or bad. Please feel free to leave your comments here - be it an appreciation or a criticsm. Those critics which help me to become a better blogger are the best.

The recent 24 hr Hartal by the left activists made me think about and write this blog. Its amazing to know that "Hartals" were conceived by the father of our nation, Mr.M.K.Gandhi himself. He organised a series of anti-British general strikes which he called hartals, thereby institutionalizing it.

The word "Hartal" was originally a Gujarati expression signifying the closing down of shops and warehouses with the object of realising a demand. A quick research on the net showed that the state with maximum number of Hartals is WestBengal followed by Kerala.

Hartals became more popular after the Supreme Court of India banned bandhs in 1998. However, the political parties are not concerned about the Supreme Court order and the still organize bandhs under the name of Hartal. Often a Hartal means that those who declare it expects the general public to stay in their homes and abstain from work. All this is expected to be voluntary, but in many instances people are terrorized into participating in it. There have been instances of large metro cities coming to a standstill. Though state-wide hartals are relatively less in number, local-level hartals have become the order of the day with at least one hartal a week.

The people of the 'most-literate' state are so scared of hartal-related violence that they mostly remain indoors, indirectly helping the cause of the hartal observers. Be it the hanging of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain or the Danish cartoon of the Prophet, Malayalis are the first to bring shutters down. The real beneficiaries, if any, are the state-run shops, where liquor is sold at nominal rates compared to licensed bars, and the mutton stalls which in particular witness roaring business on pre-hartal days. May be it is time for us to change the title "God's own country" to "Hartals own Country".

Instead of inviting entrepreneurs to invest in the state, we have started to celebrate Hartals. There were about 65 (an approx count) Hartals till date, causing loss of hundreds of crores of rupees to the state exchequer. Kerala has earned the dubious distinction of being the only state in the country where shutdown calls by any political party will be a sure success. Ironically, it is the Kerala High Court which banned bandhs for the first time in the country in 1997, which was later upheld by the Supreme Court also.

Those of you who can read malayalam, please read the following. This indicates the changing public mentality on Hartals.

The last in the list was the 24 hour hartal on 20th August. Neither I nor the public of Kerala would forget the agony of a mom who was not able to reach home in time to see her dead child. Rodia, a native of Kottayam, was at Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday to find out if her son, who was suffering from blood cancer, could get any better treatment at the Regional Cancer Centre. Late Tuesday night, she received the news that her son’s condition was worsening and reached the railway station early morning to take the first train to Kochi around 5am. But there were no trains due to the Hartal. The running trains were dealyed due to the presence of the agitators. Sitting at the railway station, she could only that the trains start to move. Yet, nothing happened and then came the bad news that her son had passed away.

None of the agitators helped her even after knowing the news about the death. The way the union leaders of the party responded to this incident was in the most barbaric terms ever. I feel pity for people who vote for these goons.

It is we, the public, who have to decide if we are in support of Hartals. If we think that nothing can be done, then nothing would be done. But if we boycott the Hartals, no one can stop us. It is upto you to decide. Follow your heart.