It is indeed boring to resort to such a pedestrian cliche, but then our minds have been so nimbed by the frequent bandhs and strikes that it is fatigue and not imagination, that inspires one to write. But still, our lament has to be recorded, if not to put sense into the skulls of self-centric politicos and Trade unions, at least as an obituay to celebrate the demise of sanity.
For, to put it bluntly, no sane person would ever strike work nor would he proudly announce that he would be doing nothing for the day. It is most unfortunate that courting idleness has become a national pastime, shamelessly sponsored by out of work politicos and paranoid unions.
And the greater sin is that if despite threats somone decides to go for work, it is considered as an act of treason by these strikers! This is so particularly in the Public sector where the unions display a mafia -like demeanour, holding their hapless employees whom they are supposed to represent in a vice like grip. Conscientious employees who would want to work are first persuaded to shirk and if necessary are even intimidated and finally threatened.
I even hear that some employees who sought a honourable way out by giving leave letters were forced to withdraw them. Of course they all stand to lose their day’s pay, but none dare question these captains of unions who ironically claim that they are striving only to get better pay for the workers. Such malignant unionism has already cost the exchequer dear and will continue to so long as politicans and unions believe that it is more legitimate to strike work than to really work.
The evil that men do lives after them. And so it is with strikes, the most evil love child of the unholy communion between comunism and democracy. It is a sad reality that strikes, essentially a Left legacy, have come to stay as a potent weapon in the political armoury and are bound to survive even after the Left is long dead.
It is an altogether different matter whether the country will survive such strikes, called at the drop of a hat for various reasons ranging from wage hikes to the death of a party leader owing to heart attack. But the politicos care less as their intention is to remain in the headlines and cause as much embarassment to the ruling regime and not to really further any interest of the people.
And today’s rulers would be tomorrow’s strikers just as yesterday’s protestors are the current rulers. The irony of the whole show is that the core issue for which these politicos struck work in the past and are striking work now, still remain unresolved.
While the swadeshi BJP opposed the liberalisation ushered in by the erstwhile Congress regime, it is now the congressmen led by their IMFL-Indian Made Foreign Leader-who are the torchbearers of the anti-globalisation movement while the very nationalist BJP is experiencing a bout of self-inflicted amnesia. Swadeshi, what?
Not that the debate on liberalisation is a worthless pursuit. It is just that the politicians have no moral right to talk about it given their penchant for walking away with their opponents’ bathrobe on the sly. What Vajpayee is wearing today is Narasimha Rao’s robe, but he did make a hell a lot of efforts to strip the latter of his ‘soiled’ attire.
And the opposition are now only trying to do their best to steal his wares now only to don them later themselves. Little wonder that the country’s problems remain where they are, and have even aggravated; it is only who’s talking that has changed.
For the record, the current strike has been touted as a protest against the economic policies of the BJP government that is reportedlycausing a hell a lot of suffering to the poor and downtrodden. But they do not seem to bother about the hardship and pain inflicted by these strikes on the very same poor masses that they seek to represent. Rather tragically, the success of their strike is actually measured by the extent of suffering the commoner is put through.
The cart-wheeling vegetable vendor whose supplies have not arrived, the middle-class parent who has no clue as to how he is going to send his ward to a crucial entrance exam, the hapless casual labourer whose daily wage is now in jeopardy, the harried commuter who is scanning the horizon for the elusive bus, the terminally ill patient who may not live to see another strike–all of them may have a different tale to tell the self-proclaimed custodians of their welfare: that it is less painful and more honourable dying in harness rather than getting killed in idleness, not to speak of the irony of getting bumped off by their purported saviours.
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