Editor,
My brother’s father in law has been persistently urging me to write something about the taxis in Shillong. Well here I am finally yielding to the plea of a frustrated passenger and finally writing something about taxi drivers and their style of functioning. But if anyone expects this letter to be a letter bashing taxi drivers left right and centre, you will be disappointed. I would like to offer constructive criticism instead.
The complaint that my brother’s father in law has against taxis drivers is their refusal to pick up passengers. He stays in one of the poshest localities in Shillong which is barely 2.5 kilometres from Police Bazaar but he says that on most days, he finds it difficult to get a taxi that plies back and forth from his locality to Police Bazaar. It baffles me as to why some taxi drivers choose to roam the streets of Shillong empty. Taxi drivers must understand that their job is a customer related service and if they do anything that upsets their customers, the latter will turn against them and this will seriously affect their business cum livelihood. I do understand that taxi drivers have been going through a rough patch ever since red buses arrived out of the blue in the streets of Shillong. If anyone remembers, once upon a time in the not so distant past, taxi drivers monopolized the public transport market in Shillong. In fact in those days very few people owned cars and they mostly travelled by public transport. Those were the good old days for taxi drivers; they were the kings of the road in every sense of the term. Then as years went by, the number of private cars in Shillong started increasing exponentially; traffic jams also increased and the straw that broke the camel’s back for taxi drivers was when those dreaded red buses finally set foot on the streets of Shillong. It was a black day for taxi drivers. One former taxi driver told me that he stopped driving a taxi when red buses started plying.
Competition always brings out the best or the worst in people. My advice to taxi drivers is to not take this situation lying down. In fact they should step up their game by improving their customer service and winning over the hearts of the public. Most Shillongites fail to realise that outsiders marvel at the sight of the small maruti car taxis of Shillong. In fact they are an integral part of our city landscape just as those big yellow taxis are in Kolkata or the fiat taxis are in Mumbai. Where else in India will you find local taxis playing Def Leppard or Firehouse! In fact I’ve read a few articles where writers from mainland India wrote with a certain amount of awe about the uniqueness of local taxis in Shillong. That is something we should all be proud of. These days you hardly find taxi drivers playing any kind of music. Taxi drivers go about their business in a sombre mood. The plight of taxi drivers must be taken seriously by the government since thousands of our unemployed youths earn their livelihood by driving a taxi and secondly local taxis are an integral part of the tourism machinery in our state. On the other hand taxi drivers too must take their jobs seriously and must also behave cordially with the public. Most taxi drivers in Shillong will be surprised to know that even taxi drivers in New York are facing an existential crisis. In big cities like Delhi and Kolkata, efficiently run cab businesses like Ola and Uber are rapidly capturing the market away from autorickshaws and taxis. When I was in Delhi last year, I was pleasantly surprised by how reasonable the fare was when we travelled around Delhi by a shared taxi on Uber. Had we travelled by auto-rickshaws,the fare would have been 200 percent or 300 percent more. Drivers must understand the economics of the Public Transport System. When things change from monopoly to a state of almost perfect competition, a paradigm shift is bound to occur and completely alter the existing scheme of things. Drivers must then realize that they also need to alter their style of functioning!
Yours etc.,
Gary Marbaniang,
Via email
Mamata’s jungle raj & our silence
Editor,
What is happening in West Bengal under the rule of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is beyond imagination. The Mamata government has been openly flouting democratic values. Constitutional obligations have been undermined with impunity and with mercilessness towards the persecuted citizens who are mostly original Bengalis and others. The violence that killed about 18 people in the last Panchayat election in 2018, has so traumatized the natives that they now live in constant fear. They do not know what tomorrow holds for them. But such serious political crimes committed by TMC or such other parties have short longevity. They wither away too soon.
Truly speaking, Mamata’s overpowering hunger for power and the chair has long disrobed her cover of sainthood. It has totally blinded and deafened her. She, in fact, cannot see the pain and sufferings of the indigenous people, nor can she listen to the grievances of the deprived and oppressed. Nevertheless, she is always extra compassionate towards a section of people. Thus, many have been cordially invited by her administration from across the border. Against that, hardly any media takes an earnest step to alert the citizens and the government machinery.
Mamata’s unhindered invitation to the infiltrators has definitely made her stronger, and finally more domineering and terribly brutal. That how many new immigrants have been granted citizenship during her tenure. Those lucky guests are now blessed with additional facilities. Besides a lot of largesse, they are allowed to take up arms and ammunition for their protection too. They can even pose threats and fire shots if anyone stands in their way. Here too such cases are under-reported. A number of terrors groups have direct connection with TMC MPs and MLAs. The police force cannot touch this favoured lot. The sorrowful plight of the natives is never a subject of discussion in the newsrooms either.
Is it a joke that about 600 citizens in Raiganj, West Bengal, were not allowed to cast their votes in the second phase of the elections on April 18? The voters who were openly intimidated by the TMC cadres not to vote were at the crossroad and distressed. Their votes were already cast by Mamata’s people. Those who were deprived of voting rights are Hindus. Left with no option they only staged a silent protest anticipating hard times in the near future. Even media persons were beaten up and their cameras smashed — as reported by Times Now.
Is this not an unprecedented shocker? Why is there conspicuous absence of outrage and screams of condemnation now? Even if there are any they will just die down. Just a few days back a 22-year-old BJP worker was found hanging from a tree in Senabana village; the crime was allegedly committed by TMC hooligans. Such heinous killings of a particular community or party workers, other than TMC, are common occurrences that never raise the eyebrows of intellectuals. They never get the attention that ‘Dadri’ got. It seems that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is a toothless tiger.
Another irony is that a prolific writer from Kolkata who regularly writes letters to The Shillong Times is silent on Mamata’s jungle raj. How could he remain a mute spectator when his own community in Bengal are outnumbered by the infiltrators from across the border in which many of the native victims are his own Dalit brethren? If a monkey sitting on a tree cries that we are under threat of “goats” from nearby villages but says nothing about a ferocious pride of lions underneath then never trust that monkey. He is a big hypocrite!
Now Mamata has moved an extra mile in this election. She has invited a popular film star ‘Ferdous Ahmed’ from Bangladesh to campaign for her. Who will warn her that this is a step towards danger? Yes, she wants her voters well sweetened up before they ensure her landslide victory. So who will ring the alarm bells now that her victory is only going to worsen the plight of the indigenous citizens? Is all armchair intellectualism a farce? Alas, when the lips of the judiciary (and such others..) are sealed by the glue of hypocrisy, then the tragedy of humanity is at hand.
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali,
Shillong -2