Durga Puja and Dussehra are much awaited festivals in India. They signify the triumph of good over evil. It is unfortunate that a 24 hour bandh has been called on October 1, with the intention of obstructing the Durga Puja celebrations. It is a calculated move to disrupt a religious festival although the reasons trotted out are (a) to protest against the police firing in East Jaintia Hills which killed two people during the economic blockade called by the Meghalaya Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Livelihoods (MIPLR) (b) to protest the death of a young man studying in Bangalore who was mysteriously killed. The two incidents happened last week. The HNLC could have called a bandh on any of the days before the Durga Puja festival which comes only once a year. Why did the outfit have to time the bandh call in the middle of Durga Puja/Dussehra? Id Ul Zuha is also approaching. Will the HNLC call a bandh on October 6 for some other reason? We have to wait and watch.
A bandh goes against the fundamental rights of citizens in a democratic country. That a militant outfit with rabidly anti-national objectives should impose a bandh to obstruct the observance of a religious festival is downright unconstitutional. And for them to lay down the norms on how Puja should be observed is sheer audacity. The state is the constitutionally appointed entity to protect the rights of citizens to observe their religious practices. Citizens cannot be expected to come out and voice their disenchantment every time some despotic forces impose their diktat on them. It is the duty of the state to use relevant sections of the law to prevent tyrannical elements from making a mockery of the rule of law.
Often the media is blamed for heralding a bandh call from sundry organisations, especially from militant outfits that send their missives to media houses though the internet. The media has two options. One is to disregard the mail; the other is to publish it. Media houses choose the latter because their argument is that people who are ignorant of the bandh call might move around normally and suffer the consequences. That is the only reason why media houses announce a bandh call. It is the law enforcement agencies that should develop the strategy to counter the bandh calls by making preventive arrests the moment a bandh is announced. In the case of the HNLC the bandh callers operate from the virtual world. The HNLC calling a bandh over email is a cyber crime. Police in this country have been able to deal with cyber crimes effectively and to crack down on the IP addresses used. In Meghalaya cyber criminals operate with gay abandon. The Meghalaya Government and Police Department must be held accountable for failing to halt this notorious cyber crime.