BANDH-E-MAT(R)AM

There was a time when strikes,rallies and bandh where used as means to protest against the brutalities committed by the British on the Indians. Time has travelled a long way and India is a democracy now,allowing people to lead a comfortable life.So,hopefully a low rate of strikes to encounter???

Unfortunately,no!! Strikes still occur and could have been considered normal if were raised against some major injustice. But, today there's a booming fashion of calling strike for any damn small cause and bringing the city to a halt. Yes! today strike has become a daily-basis course. All this is hampering the functioning of various IT companies, daily-wage earners, hospitals etc. and eventually causing major loss to the city.

If strikes had a strong motive and a noble cause behind it,then a single day's loss would have been compensated and accepted. But,how to expect that when political parties are supporting it just for the sake of cooking-up their vote-bank and abusing their rival parties. And who becomes the escsape-goat? We the common man.

Ironically,our politicians have devised an indigenous solution to enhance the employment exchange scheme. It goes like-" collect all the poor,illiterates and unemployed ,bribe them with some money,foodings and we are all set for party time!!! Oh! sorry,I mean a serious strike (hopefully)." Who cares whether the participants are even aware of the cause behind it!

All this drama causes a lot of suffering to school-kids, IT sectors,patients going to hospital, daily travellers and many others. These 'bandhs' have turned out to be nothing more than another holiday for the city,hardly serving the real purpose. May God give these strike holders enough conscience to protest for appropriate causes only and not make a mockery of the strength of this non-violent method - 'Strike' or 'Bandh'.