The Opposition United Democratic Front in Kerala is bent on organizing a hartal on February 19 to protest against price rise.
Haratal is today a weapon of political parties that lack constructive programmes and actions. Their self-centers cadres, who have joined politics for personal gains, cannot be mobilized for any mass action, without the political parties spending huge sums on them.
People often cite that Mahatama Gandhi organised the first haratls. However, a close look would show how different they were. The hartals called by Gandhiji was organised by volunteers without resort to violence. Now, it is fear of violence by often paid goons of the political parties that keep people away from their occupations.
Gandhiji knew that his hartals would hit the colonialists in the cities than the rural populace. The peasantry would be able to carry on with their occupations without interruption while the movement of goods and services needed by the colonialists would be hit.
Today, there is no colonialists to fight against, but only elected governments. The Opposition should win the support of the people and bid for power instead of harming the economy. Life in the twenty-first century needs 24-hour uninterrupted services. The hartal by the UDF will only contribute to price rise by halting production for a day.
February 19, 2008 at 2:58 pm |
I completely agree to the view said above. It is a fact that the political parties that calls for hartal need to declare it as a 100% success one and for that the only way they can think of is by frightening and threatening the common man.
It is a sad thing that even when the leaders say that the most wanted services like taking to hospital won’t be interrupted, the local members of the party continues to block every common man’s path, whether it be goin to hospital, or it be returning from airport after a tiring journey.
One more thing that I would like to point out is that the way the hartal changed from its past form. Earlier when there was the practice so-called as “bandh”, the hartal wast just the closing of shops and nothing else. The roads and transportation was not blocked during the ealier form of hartal. But once the court banned “bandh” which included the complete stoppage of the daily deeds, slowly the hartal took the form of bandh. At this moment, we can clearly say that hartal is exactly the bandh, with a different name. Now, I strongly believe that the hon’ble high court of kerala should immediately take impulsive action and ban the so-called hartal as did for bandh. The statement should also include that no practice similar to bandh or hartal should be hereafter be performed by any group which restricts the normal daily life of common men.
June 5, 2008 at 4:43 am |
[...] posts Hartal: the weapon of bankrupt politicians Hartals galore in Kerala [...]
August 22, 2008 at 10:09 pm |
[...] all, let us think why political parties turn strikes into bandhs and call for hartals. As has been discussed earlier, it is because of their failure to mobilise support for strikes and agitations among the workers [...]