Avarice is infectious. So it ‘ s small wonder that the staff of a few other departments of the State Government too have decided to hitch themselves on to the strikers ‘ bandwagon or rather, buses. And why not? They wouldn ‘ t mind sitting idle when there is work to be done, but definitely not when some of their bretheren happen to get more than what they do for doing nothing. After all, are not all the government staff as inefficient, as irresponsible and as unaccountable as those who are striking now?
In what way are their needs less than the latter? In any case, is it not their natural Pavlovian duty to shirk work and hit the potholed streets to advance their own ‘ reasonable demands ‘ notwithstanding that the general public who foot their paybills are put to unreasonable hardships? In fact, is that not real socialism wherein the right to shirk and strike is absolute albeit for that chosen few who were lucky enough to get government jobs through push and pull and what not?
Our Unions that are at the vanguard of this new brand of terrorism – Labour Terrorism – can at times make even bin Ladens cringe in a fit of inferiority complex. What is the need for bombs and hijacked aircraft when these labour mafias have in their arsenal such a potent missile called strike for which no political dispensation has ever found a deterrant?
And like every terrorist group this gang too is our own making, thanks to decades and decades of competitive pampering by successive, spineless rulers who, bitten by the populist bug but more for the sake of a captive vote bank, emptied the nation’s treasury just to sustain this insensitive and thankless crowd.
The fact that they preside over most of the essential services that the people cannot live without has only emboldened them to resort to higher levels of terrorism. A normal decent human being would feel responsible and accountable when vested with such critical functions. But not a government servant(?) who would deem it as a license to cripple the country if their needs are not met.
And they are utterly shameless besides being insatiable sadists to the core. It is of little concern to them that a bankrupt treasury simply cannot afford to pay or that the hapless commuter or any other consumer of their services is not at all at fault. In fact it is precisely because they have been paid all these years without regard for their efficiency or output that most government undertakings and departments have empty kittys.
But they would not bother to even lend a cursory ear to their employers ‘ woes or the consumers ‘ anguish, both parties being the same here. For them it is always pay first, talk later – the familiar language made popular by the likes of Veerappan, bin Laden and scores of such trigger-happy, bomb-happy outlaws. And unfortunately also the language of the very lawful strike-happy unions!
The nation ‘ s economy is at peril. The nation ‘ s security is at peril. Never before have the people of the country felt so drained and downcast, despondent and doomed, down and out. But for the Unions it is business as usual, with their pied pipers and all the attendant rats lost in the din and chorus of their own blissful sloganeering, oblivious to the all round gloom. One can have a Deepavali even without crackers, sweets and new dresses, but never without the ritual strikes and protests by this greedy lot. Ah, I can see even pests and parasites squirming in shame!