The Madras HC’s verdict allowing the Oct 1 ‘Total closure’ albeit with appropropriate safeguards is undoubtedly a huge dampener to public spirit. Some of the queries raised and comments made by the learned Bench during the hearings did reflect the prevailing mood of the people, which is one of fatigue and frustration: “ … whatever be the cause, is it proper for the ruling party to call for the bandh, thereby prejudicing the rights of citizens?” and “ …we want to ask the State Government whether in their opinion such a bandh is illegal or not”. The Judges even declared that the court could not be a ‘silent spectator to the plight of the people’. One actually saw a judgment there, in the true spirit of law.
Alas, it was not to be so in letter. In fact, none could have faulted the court on grounds of legality had it stayed the bandh. That would have been in keeping with recent legal trends too. The Supreme Court in CPI(M) vs Bharat Kumar had criticised the call for enforcing a bandh and affirmed the Kerala HC verdict which held that “calling for and holding a bandh violated the fundamental rights of the citizen and the court could step in to protect such rights”. The Kerala HC in another case had also held that “the moment a hartal seeks to impinge on the rights of others, it ceases to be a hartal in the real sense …”. The SC itself had categorically stated that “there exists no fundamental, statutory, equitable and moral right to resort to strike”. The people still think they have a right to attend to their daily work undisturbed. Yet, this bandh is not stayed; it stays, rather. A wonderful opportunity to rein in habitual strikers and ‘bandhers’ has been lost! Indeed, it looks it is going to take a few more bandhs before light dawns at the end of the judicial tunnel.
In the rationalists’ scheme of things Rama and religion may not be part of our culture, but ordering bandhs at the drop of a towel, yellow or otherwise, seems very much so. The itch takes on a particular virulence if the party/persons calling the bandh happen to be in power. Though bandhs, strikes, hartals and generally any kind of protest that induces one to shut shop, shirk work and scoot for the day, are all Leftist legacies, the dravidian politicos here have consistently displayed a special liking for them. Ramadoss of PMK, while justifying the bandh-to-be, says Anna, as CM, had resorted to it, though I am hard-pressed to verify the same, till the time of going to, ..well, press. Of course, we know that MGR called a bandh in 1983 to protest the killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka and in fact, schools and colleges were closed for quite some time then. Jayalalithaa, whose party is a PIL petitioner now against the current bandh, herself held a bandh for Cauvery water when in power. But K’s penchant for bandhs pales his political peers’. The bandh in offing is the second by him this year. Over the decades, there have been many miscellaneous bandhs for miscellaneous reasons by sundry politicos and parties of all hue. And all were for the purpose of expressing solidarity with god-knows-whom or for god-knows-what, though we the people can vouch that whatever the cause, it didn’t get better but only got diluted and even liquidated. Of course, claims of success had always rent the air and successes they were, if screwing up our lives for the day were the yardstick.
The most avid assurances of the Government and the best beliefs of the Court notwithstanding, the fact is that bandhs are highly disruptive. It needs optimism bordering on idle hope to imagine that things would be hunky dory on that day. And citizens’ woes get multiplied when it is the ruling dispensation that is the sponsor. Who would dare open shop or stalk the streets when it is pretty well known that such an act would be deemed as derailing the Sethu project itself and the defiance would entail one to be marked for a later-day nemesis? In any case, who can resist a holiday albeit inflicted and the temptation to laze around? Barring the dead with an appointment at the crematorium plus the media with commitments to break news even when there is none, and a few such unfortunates, hardly anyone will stir out of their lairs. If the buses do ply, you can bet on them to be empty. Indeed, bandhs are a success the day they are announced!
And ominously, bandhs happen at the worst times on the calender. The earlier one this year was on March 31. Now it is Oct 1. Coincidentally, both have fallen on the Account-closing days of nationalised banks when they remain out of bounds to customers. And this time, the bandh is sandwiched between a Sunday and a national holiday, making it four days of nil monetary activity on the trot. This being month end/beginning and we being normal businessmen and ordinary citizens …not politicos … with not much cash to lug around but rather leading an ATM-to-mouth existence, the scenario looks bleaker than a new moon night! What a callous, criminal waste of a nation’s time!
But if the verdict saddened us, the denizens, there were enough comic interludes too during the hearing courtesy prosecution. The most laughable was the prosecutor’s attempt to delink the ruling party and the Government and claiming that the latter had nothing to do with the impending ‘Total closure’. One wondered why then was he, the State’s advocate general, appearing before court, but as legal laymen, we will let that pass. But can we infer that the TN Government is not as eager about the Sethu project as the ruling DPA? Again, are DPA and UPA different political entities? Also, the AG was at pains to say that this was not a bandh, but the CM had himself used the word ’bandh’ in Murasoli. Or may be it was not the CM but Kalaingar who said that. But what took the cake was the AG’s assertion that the bandh, or whatever it was, was a natural reaction to threats to K’s throat and tongue. Now, it is understandable for A.Veerasamy to say that, but should the ‘Government’ say so? And then the assurance that there would be no untoward incidents; we thought the bandh itself was most untoward! Again, if normal life will prevail, as the AG says, then where is the ‘bandh’? Well, we have to import rationalists from Lemuria to decipher all that is taking place in rational TN!
Some petty thoughts: Will Kalaingar TV go off air on Oct 1 for the sake of Sethu? Will K himself stop work, ie Ram- bashing, for a day? But why a bandh at all when there is this highly self-respecting option of pulling out from the UPA? Is not the 100-year Sethu dream worth these small sacrifices?
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