A bandh for every occasion seems to be the mantra of every Indian. Granted that a heinous crime was committed and the nation is up in arms against law makers, law breakers and the judiciary and that we need a collective soul searching about why we produce perverts by the scores. But to call a bandh and cripple the economy of a country that is just beginning to get back on its feet after a near fiscal collapse due to policy paralysis, is hardly the answer to our multitude of problems. We are also a nation of copycats whether it is about committing crimes or our modes of protests. Criminals, like the ones who molested the Guwahati girl under media glare wanted their five seconds of fame and their faces framed on television channels. Similarly, NGOs too have overdone the candle lighting bit. But lighting candles is a spontaneous act while a bandh is an imposition and a non-democratic exercise. More so, when the Supreme Court has made bandhs illegal! Definitely the apex court must have done due diligence before coming up with such an order.
That the same set of people who berate the judiciary for not doing its job, themselves, have no respect for the law of the land, speaks very eloquently about our civil society. And bandhs always prove successful because the salaried class are only too happy to strike work. It’s the ordinary person without a voice who is penalised by a largely middle class shenanigan. Horrendous crimes and breakdown of governance happens in developed nations as well but one has hardly heard of a nation being brought to its knees by a call to immobilise the entire country. It’s a very Indian mindset and one that we cannot afford to have thrust upon us time and again. It’s time for ordinary Indians to speak up and say whether they agree with a method of protest that deprives them of their daily wages and by extension their food. For too long we have heard the hyperbole of only a section of educated, middle class, English speaking, salaried Indian. It’s time to allow ordinary, powerless Indians into television studios and for the media to quote their concerns in the language of their choice, not in English.
