ON the onset, let me say that I don’t give a rat’s arse about either the party in power or those in the opposition. They both upset me in equal measure for varied reasons. So, I don’t really gravitate towards entire parties, just a few mavericks here and there who are all about getting the job done, as compared to their contemporaries who want political clout and little else.
But this bandh has left me feeling very weary, very sad and very dejected as a citizen of this nation; by itself, the debacle managed to garner so much more criticism than the very issue it is protesting against ie price rise.
The means of protest – the bandh – has hijacked the issue. In fact our FM has already announced that there shall be no roll back on prices, and though the opposition has deemed the bandh a blockbuster, the FM’s current stand pretty much means that we are back to Square One (throw in 2000 crore of losses incurred on one hand and daily wages lost by many poor people).
However, what upsets me more is people’s acceptance (those hailing from the upper middle class) of price rise as a natural progression of events ie being okay with it.
Have these folks stopped even for a minute to think about the fact that even if they decided to eat less because food costs more or cut back in other areas to spend more on food, it’s a death knell for poor people for whom eating less could pretty much mean eating nothing.
How can we be so darn cavalier about such an issue? If you have any doubts about it, just visit inane banter on twitter. such a waste of a public forum!
And yes, I get it that our food distribution channels are highly suspect and that there is much inertia on using/ finding alternative fuel sources for varying reasons, et al. But the long and short of it, is that the powers that be who are the current custodians of these issues, are the ones who need to work backwards and ensure that prices do NOT rise.
So, by merely venting our angst on this bandh, which has inconvenienced all and sundry, and by not speaking out on the price rise itself, we as citizens are missing the woods for the trees.
Tags: bandh, price rise
