Total Flop! Mangaluru NOT Bandh on Bharath Bandh?
Mangaluru: Mangaloreans, especially the business owners faced enough losses, due to the three-day City shut-down during the recent Curfew, that they didn’t wanted to incur yet another huge losses by supporting the Bharath Bandh called by few trade unions- instead their business is run as usual. If the organizers of Bharath Bandh think that the Bharath Bandh was successful- they are absolutely WRONG! Because Mangaluru is NOT Bandh on Bharath Bandh! 99% of the shops were open, and city buses and auto-rickshaws were seen plying on the streets. The heavy police force will prevent any untoward incidents in the city. Even service buses were also operational.
Ten Central traders unions and bank unions had announced a nationwide strike in order to protest against the ‘Anti-National’ and ‘Anti-People’ policies of the Central government. Trade unions had decided to go on a strike after a futile meeting with the Central Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar. Trade unions say none of their concerns were addressed in the meeting last week. Trade unions have raised multiple issues related to PSU mergers, disinvestment, which they claim will affect their livelihood. The Unions had said that around 25 crore people will participate in a nationwide strike on January 8 to protest against the government’s “anti-people” policies- but many cities nationwide have not shown full support to the Bandh, including Mangaluru.
Trade unions INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF, UTUC along with various sectoral independent federations and associations had adopted a declaration in September last to go on a nationwide strike today. According to a statement by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), six bank unions have decided to partake in the Bharat Bandh. Banking services such as ATMs and branch services may be affected by this strike. Online transactions such as NEFT, IIMPS won’t be affected. The bank workers are protesting against the merger of public sector banks.
Schools and colleges are open, central and fish market is open for business, all the three city malls are doing brisk business as usual- therefore everyone is happy, and City is running in good shape as usual. Mangaloreans had enough of the hardship faced during the three-day curfew, and they don’t need one more Curfew like Bandh today. And by the way, do we accomplish anything from a bandh- I bet absolutely NOTHING other than putting people’s lives in hardship and putting businesses in huge loses. Are all these organizations and leaders proud of their decision to close India, thereby putting the citizens, hard-working people and businessmen/traders in hardship? Does it make any sense, when bandhs/strikes/hunger strikes in the past have shown no results at all, rather than a waste of time and a huge loss. And or the fact, even when the Supreme Court has issued orders not to call for any Bandh, then what good is Court’s ruling, when people give a damn about it.
The first person to suffer due to a ‘ Bandh’ is the daily wage worker, he/she will lose one-day wages, and some workers will be kept hungry. Even travelers who want to reach their respective destinations will be stranded in bus-stands and other places and will curse the people behind this bandh. This is our democracy at its worst, where people are made to strand like anything without normalcy in the country. While the citizens are going to be taken for a ride, I don’t know what our government is doing by allowing parties/Unions to issue bandh calls that are disrupting everything. Don’t our law enforcement authorities follow the rulings of the Supreme Court, not to allow bandhs. But luckily, Mangaluru is safe and thanks to Mangaloreans for not supporting the Bandh. Good Choice made!
By committing to the most idiotic way of protest, “Bandh” we are not only jeopardizing the normal life but also creating chaos. We should restrain from getting influenced by such moves and use our common sense and exercise the best way out to make the government realize its mistake…Period! What we need to see is have government/systems become people friendly like in other nations. I think ‘Bandhs’ are not the solution to solve issues, instead, transparency and reasoning/justification that we should be asking for.
We should ask why the government is taking such decisions and help the government with alternate solutions in case the government is unable to look for an appropriate solution. Bharath Bandh will not solve any issues or problems. The bottom line is ‘ Bandhs’ will flame inflation for sure and will increase income disparity-making poor poorer. All I have to say is that ” Bandh ” is useless, waste of time and energy, huge losses and disruptions to normal life. I bet many of you will agree with me. What do you have to say? Like We All Did Today, Let’s all stay away from supporting the Bandh Call in future too!
The lukewarm response to this nationwide strike is the evidence that the CAA protest was staged by opposition parties for political gains while the issue really did not have any substance to it. The majority of the country supports CAA and that’s how democracy works. Now pappu can see if he can latch onto another issue.