While pressure groups use bandhs as the ultimate tool for putting pressure on any government, those who pay the heaviest price are those who have nothing to do with government. People who earn their wages outside the government system are most affected while government employees have the last laugh. They get a paid holiday. If the economy of the country is what it is today, corruption and faulty policies are not the only reasons. The indolence and lack of accountability of those in the government sector and the fact that government cannot hold its own employees accountable is one reason for the rupees to slide to an ignominious low. Bank transactions run into several hundreds of crores of rupees a day. These are paralysed by bandhs. It is unfortunate that no study has been conducted as to Meghalaya’s cumulative losses on a single bandh day. We should be asking the pressure groups as to who will bear this gargantuan loss.
A representative of an NGO had the temerity to say that Government should be held responsible for acts of arson that occur on a bandh day. Such irresponsible statements cannot be ignored as the ranting of a sick mind. If they are ignored, Meghalaya will have to pay a heavy price. Those who will lose out the most will be bright young minds with the ambition to make it big. A study of the antecedents of some of the pressure groups will reveal that they come from socio-economic backgrounds that are not dependent on daily wages. The majority are Government contractors. Others do not even bother to inform the public the source of their income. Yet the 30 lakh people of Meghalaya are willing to bet their last penny on them to lead us out of the ghetto of poverty, illiteracy and poor health? Over the years there is sufficient evidence to prove that all issues raised by pressure groups in Meghalaya have had strong political overtones and are tilted towards the making and breaking of governments rather than a real intent to constructively resolve the issues that confront the state. Those with genuine concern for the state and its people will not use bandhs as a tool for negotiations, because bandhs are retrogressive and hit at the poorest; not the middle class.
Time to demand accountability and transparency from pressure groups!
