An anti-national activity for misguiding the masses.

'Bandh' may find its root in 'collective bargaining', a doctrine that evolved in the West after the Industrial Revolution. In the second stage of the Civil Disobedience Movement it became our tool against the Raj, but for a country which is celebrating the 'Golden Jubilee' of its independence, is maturing as a democracy and where institutions are finally coming out of political clutches, it is time to clear the face and distinguish the situations where it was employed. What can do it better than the pen of a judge?

Judiciary, by its very nature, is unceasingly involved in the process of writing the history of the nation, in the existing socio -economic milieu, in the form of judgments (every judge, to the best of his ability, on the facts and circumstances expressed by advocates, to the best of their capacity) and helping in reasonable, just and proper governance of the country. Judiciary operates within the parameters of procedures and precedents and is always conscious of judicious self-restrain, lest, in its enthusiasm to bring about social reforms, it falls overboard. If during a phase of a nation, the constant effort of politicians is to do 'what will please the people' and not 'what will benefit the people', the country is doomed to ignorance, corruption, insecurity and debt unless the third pillar of democracy assumes a more vibrant role.

The judgment of the High Court of Kerala declaring 'bandhs' to be illegal and unconstitutional clearly reflects the thinking of positive, analytical minds who sincerely and strongly feel, believe and realise that the vast inherent potential of our great country has not been exploited even minimally and that the basic cause has been instability caused by people who being in control are only furthering their vested interests. These people don't care about the loss in man-hours caused and the light years we are pushed behind every time work is halted, more so in this electronic age, when technology acquired last week is termed 'ancient' by the time it hits the market.

'Bandh' is the exhibition of political parties or organisations of its so-called 'strength' by collecting people who have no interest in nation-building and who congregate, either, because they are paid to do so or have been emotionally charged or brainwashed into it. Nothing is really achieved out of the 'bandh' except satisfaction of the insecure ego and vulgar public show of head-counts in the vote-banks of the person behind it who in the process helps anti-social elements and mindless clods have a field day by burning vehicles, looting shops, jamming the wheels of progress and preventing the common man from earning his bread from daily toil.

If you wish to stop the development of any nation, stop its production by declaring 'bandhs' on the flimsiest of reasons, or loot or destroy the product it has produced, whether by law, as happened during the Raj or at gun-point as happens under terrorism. Whereas terrorism invokes a violent form of destruction of the national product, 'bandh' is slow destruction by not allowing production or trade; the cause is the same, the effect is the same.

'Bandh' is an anti-national and inhuman activity, which should not be allowed at any cost. Our difficulty has been the twin attitudes of "Kya farak parta hai?" (What difference does it make?) and "Kal kar lenge." (Will do it tomorrow). The concepts are deep rooted in our philosophy which believes in the concept of 'rising above the gunas' (tri-guna-rahitam) and 'continuance of life, birth after birth' but which has been misinterpreted and misapplied. But these doctrines are applicable to maybe one amongst a million who is again one amongst a million on the path of realisation. When we don't carry out our 'karma', don't let others do their 'karma', have a gala day, watch TV, surf the Internet, etc. etc. for a day, with a 'Kya farak parta hai, kal kar lenge' attitude, we forget that locked as we are with our 'karma', in our search for happiness in this mundane world, we are only entitled to returns to the extent of 'karma' carried out.

When will we understand, as a nation, that, Farak parta hai and Kal nahi kar sakte, for every one gets left behind by one light day and millions of people of this great country have not moved millions of years ahead, just because someone heading one political party or organisation felt that such tactics are to be deployed whenever political power is waning. The nation will reap only the product of collective 'karmas of its citizenry. Nobody must ever forget that in this world of constant activity all achievement is directly proportionate to the extent of sacrifices made. Rising higher requires more production, sacrificing energies for construction and not for satisfying desires.

During our school days, we had a progressive notion that one of the ways to carry out a 'bandh' would be to restrain the teacher in class and force him to teach for 5 hours, instead of the 30 minutes that he taught, out of the 40 minutes that he was supposed to teach. Has there been a single day in our history when all the political parties or any one of them asked the citizens of our country to work twice or thrice their daily output? Nobody will and nobody can because with that approach we will be geared towards being a developed nation and who would like India to be a developed country! Politics is the science of amassing power and emulates the 'city bus' syndrome, where every person uses the entire muscle-power available to get in and having got in, uses all energies in preventing others from getting in. If one achieves power, others do not. One, who achieves it, tries every gimmick to keep it and stay on and the one who doesn't have it yet tries every trick in the trade to get it. The basic issue is: Whether the common man will get ground in this process as between the two grinding stones of a 'chakki' or like 'manthan', where two equal and opposite forces react with one other, good, strong leaders will emerge, as butter does, to help the common man. As of today, political parties or organisations are crushing the common man and the poor man unassumingly kisses the hand that beats him. But ultimately the hand that beats has to disappear, justice has to thrive. However, the process leaves behind destruction that takes years of hard labor by the new generations to rectify.

'Bandh' and every form of action charged by public passions crush the common citizenry and throw their lives into a mess to come out of which takes generations. The nation then requires World Bank aid and the citizenry City Bank Loans, leading only to constant debt, toil and struggle from which the individual and nation will never be able to come out, except by violating laws, human rights or corrupting their morals. The gap between the classes continues to widen and we are at every moment getting away from the ideal set by Mahatma Gandhi to 'wipe out every tear from every eye'. Nobody can be allowed to stall the process of law and the course of justice... observed the Hon'ble Supreme Court recently while dealing with a case relating to a strike by advocates. As, were it not so, in all decisions, one side would always be dissatisfied and hold the Rule of Law to ransom by calling for a bandh therefore bandh cannot be allowed at any cost.

There are other mature ways of registering protests. The Hon'ble High Court of Kerala has rightly declared 'bandhs' illegal and unconstitutional, giving legal imprimatur to restrain one of the greatest social evils existing in a democratic set-up. Let us, for once, face reality squarely, think, reflect and decide as a nation, whether we are ready to join hands together as we walk towards the 'golden age' or will still call for 'bandhs' and mortgage our generations to foreign debts. Believe you me, this time it is not going to be only 425 years (17 generations)!

Aruneshwar Gupta

*Published in Times of India after editing