Miss Neha Sharma was stranded at the Bhubaneswar railway station waiting for a train to take five of her family members suffering from heavy medical reason, but was not able to. WHY?
Mr. Jahangir Ahmed from Mumbai will now be sent a court notice for surpassing the final date of payment of the installment of his loan, and will suffer a higher premium with more rigid norms. WHY?
Mrs. Srinima Mishra will now need to replan her home budget for the next few weeks, keeping in mind the growing cost of vegetables in the market. WHY?
Now friends, these are question ,when asked generally, that fall into the beneficiary segment of what we call gossip. But all the above events share two characteristics:
1. Their date of occurance
2. The answer to the question “WHY”
The opposition “bandh” on the 5th of July,2010 was a blatant strike on the spirit of the democracy of India. I wonder what makes us believe that we should trust a state government who, while in power, calls for a strike. Is representation at the parliament more important to a 100 crore lost in the business market, loss of public property and vandalism towards the civic life of people? The basic idea that crosses the extremes of ridicule is the fact that a nationwide ‘bandh’ was called to oppose the govt.’s decision on the hike of petrol prices and hence harming the revenue. Will collapsing the entire financial market of the country for a single day, ceasing all revenue transactions, destroying public commodity, ceasing mass transport conveyance, strengthen the revenue overnight? I do know how an idiot knows to voice his opinion. Does that mean our “well-competent” politicians learn from it. Seems they chose to.
And moreover, it has been called by many active members of the BJP that it was the voice of the common man. So since when has the common man set fire on the bus he travels in? The common man has suffered a loss in his daily bread. If the per capita income of the average Indian in Rs 20, the opposition stole away those Rs 20 from a man for whom it was his lunch, dinner…..sleep. Can an opinion only be voiced by ceasing the country’s metabolism?
I wouldn’t believe that the “so-called bandh” was a call from a united frontier event. I can say it without fear, because member of different parties of the NDA and opposition had different version to themselves. BJP sec, Nitin Gadhkari, says “Its our right to call for a bandh (this one made me laugh)”. CPM’s Brinda Karat calls it an invocation to India. Another CPM politburo member calls it a proof of the abilities of CPM to call for a nationwide halt. All of the opposition party leaders are busy fighting for a piece of the ‘credit’ cake. But they failed to see that common India for whom the problems grew far bigger with just one day.
Due to the bandh, nationwide prices of vegetables shall increase because of the single day dumping of the entire PDS product chain. Business loss that amounted to over 1000 crores for that single day would need to be replenished. I just want to put forth a plain simple question. Is it helping to make an Indian’s life better. If it is, then I would withdraw every condemnable remark I have met yet. But if it isn’t, has India’s democracy been justified?
If petrol price is our chief concern, why did the state govt. support the “bandh” even when it had the power to change things around? Two months ago the State High court ruling disallowed BJD from participating in any bandh called by the national govt., unless it’s called due to security reasons. But, we witnessed a whole different scene. Is it the problem of not being able to find a solution to the problem. How damn hard can that be. The entire VAT on petrol amounts to 18%, out of which 16% is entry surcharge, 1% state share, .75& being the CST out of it. Are modifications in the ratio so difficult to carry out to settle down the economic scenario of a state. If a 19 year old person can come up with an idea within one hour, I won’t believe that our state govt. lacked the brains and funding to have an RnD team look into the matter.
This blog post is not aimed at motivating people or arising conflicts, but a mere remark whether the actions of 5th July, 2010 justified from a national perspective.
-Sarthak Pranit
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