Bharat Bandh & 'We The Common People'

"India comes to a standstill", "Opposition's Bharat bandh puts India on hold", "Bandh shutdown India".. We will be having the similar headlines in various newspapers tomorrow.. If the issue becomes more ignited, then media will follow up on this; else from the next day onwards, we will move to some other news.. And today’s shameful day will be forgotten by one and all but those who suffered and whose voices will remain unheard as their apathy were, throughout the traumatizing day today..

To refresh the memories, NDA and Left observed a ‘Bharat Bandh’ today opposing the recent fuel price hike by the ruling UPA Government.. But ‘Bharat’ was missing in today’s ‘Bharat Bandh’.. Certainly the word ‘Bharat’ doesn’t mean and reflect the hired goons who were used to scare the people to keep off the roads and rummage through the public properties.. NDA is claiming it to be unprecedented and people's response as overwhelming.. Are they really referring to the 'real people' response? Closing eyes in attempt to NOT see the truth is appalling to say the least.. It really makes one wonder, to what low levels can these people stoop to? These acts certainly raise questions on the genuine intentions of the Political parties who were involved is these acts today..

India is a democratic country, true.. A section of people were not happy with Government’s decision(s), true.. But isn’t there a better and civilized way to express the difference of thoughts? If this Bandh was for common people, then why were these very common people made to face all sort of inconveniences? When speaking in terms of democracy, the only thing that really comes into my mind about today’s Bandh is, It was a Bharat Bandh: By Goons.. Of Goons.. For Goons.. People were scared, threatened, and abused to support the Bandh.. If this Bandh was to protest something for people’s right then why people were not allowed to decide whether to support this Bandh or not?

Today’s ‘Bharat Bandh’ gives some interesting insights about the way our Political parties think and behave.. We rarely see the main rival parties or the parties in power and the opposition agreeing on any points.. They all are hell bent on proving the fact that how good they are and how bad the opponent is.. On any issue, be it budget, Nuclear bill, Fuel price hike, any amendment or a new bill, the views of our Political parties are at extreme opposite ends.. I wonder how this can be possible.. Today UPA is in power and increased the price of the fuels and NDA declared Bandh.. I still remember when NDA was in power and there was a rather steep price rise in fuels (Kerosene’s price was increased from Rs. 2.75/- to Rs. 10/- !), at that time Congress and allies had protested! A senior opposition leader was addressing press conference today and was shamelessly saying, “there was never such kind of price rise in NDA regime”.. I still remember purchasing onions @ Rs.100/- .. Either our politicians suffer from short term memory or they are over optimistic about the fact that ‘we the common people’ suffer from short term memory syndrome.. The fact is, people were poor in NDA regime and people are poor in UPA regime too.. Farmers had committed suicide then and it is rampant today also..

We keep on hearing that India is being touted as the next super power by 2020! Isn’t that a BIG illusion, a BIG lie, a DIRTY joke in our face? Let’s come out of the self congratulatory mode.. I am an optimist.. But I don’t day dream..

We still don’t have clean drinking water for 80% of people.. There are multi millions who still don’t have shelter over the head, undernourished children still sleep with their bellies empty and we are talking about being superpower! Any country’s economic health is not reflected by graph of stock markets! Do we have proper roads? Do we have sufficient electricity? Do we have employment for our people? No we don’t have.. Let’s not hide from the truth.. We are a struggling nation.. We are no where close to being a super power.. Indian Economy, Indian Democracy, Indian Political system.. These are the words which are similar to movies with script in a complete disarray.. But still, the star cast and the production team claims it to be 'Running Successfully'.. With such contrasting differences between haves and haves not, we don't even need the figurative reports.. Just look around and we can see the real India and fact will present itself.. And that fact is very disturbing.. Fact that we are treading a difficult path and are in hands of people who don’t have any vision.. Our strings have gone in the hand of such kind of people who lack the qualities to be called a civilized person.. And the fact that they are running the show and pulling the strings is very scary..

There has to be some root cause of the problem.. Problem is our mind set.. We still fight among ourselves.. We are still Hindu or Muslim first and then a human being or an Indian.. We keep on finding ways to fight among ourselves.. And we are blessed with multiple reasons.. We fight on the basis of religion, caste, region, language and we never get tired of this.. It’s easy to divide people by luring them.. Caste politics is something which has made the fortunes of many politicians.. Common people take the bait of this temporary benefit and contributes in dividing the country and thus making it even more fragile.. Civics textbook of class VII has the contents sufficient to make anyone an ideal citizen.. It states, “One should not vote on the basis of Caste. Religion, region, language or political party”.. How many of us follow this? Answer to this question will give answer to many of our apathies..

Reflecting back on today’s ‘Bandh’, it was a pure demonstration of opportunism at the height.. Millions of people traveling were stranded, public properties were ransacked and people commuting were abused.. Did the opposition parties ever thought once about the daily wage earners who will loss their day’s salary? How will they eat and feed their families? What about people who needed immediate medical attention? But expecting that these people will even think of considering these things will be our foolishness.. These people don’t have any ideology.. They support hooliganism because it serves their own purpose and somehow, sometime, somewhere; they too are or were a part of the same brigade directly or indirectly.. These political parties and people involved in these type of decision making are people with dead conscience for whom only thing that matters is their own personal interest..  

These ‘people representatives’ who are sitting there and making moves can change so much for the country had they had any vision.. But even though they are donning the roles of the leaders, they think least about the country.. Today’s Bandh cost India a whopping amount of Rs. Thirteen Thousand Crore! Think about the things that could have been done with that amount! Think about the number of school, hospitals and roads that could have been constructed.. Fact that this ‘Bandh’ was observed against the price rise, think about how it really helped the common people when so much loss has been incurred because of this.. With so many issues already crippling us, we expect a much better, matured and civilized response from our politicians and which is missing as always..

Indian political system has hit a new low.. India the country of our dreams.. How do we envision it? I see that vision getting blurred..