Showing posts with label Kerala. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kerala. Show all posts

Friday, May 25, 2012

THE HARTALS OF KERALA




Whenever the oil companies in India increased petrol prices, the opposition communist parties wasted no time to call for an Hartal and not for once the increased prices dropped because of the Kerala Hartal. Yet the ritual continues till today. As a result of it, no taxis or auto rickshaws would run on the roads and for the general public brisk walking is the only way to move from one place to the other. Attendance in office would be minimal.  The shoppers would down their shutters. Generally the public life would turn in to a sleep mode, alternatively the house hold life would become lively with all members getting together for a full day.
The Hartals come to Kerala regularly on one reason or other and people have got accustomed to it to the extent of making inquiries with press or elsewhere whether there is an Haral declared, when some possible issue are in the air.  If the answer turns negative a sizable chunk of office goers and students might get disappointed.

Hartal is a Gujarati word meaning to strike work or any business voluntarily. It came in to common usage during the independent movement in India when Mahatma Gandhi who hails from Gujarat and spearheaded the movement, used Hartal as a non-violent method to protest against British-India. Hartal is originally done voluntarily out of sorrow or shock on account of death of a popular person or on account of anything tragic to the country.

Now the voluntary aspect has given way to force by the political parties and they decide what is  sorry for the people. 
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In addition to State Hartals there are regional Hartals too comprising only a Panchayat or a District and the effect of it is same to the general public within that District or Panchayat,  no shops, no vehicles.

Many people condemn the trend of calling for a Hartal at the drop of a hat. There is even a court order banning Bandh.  The Bandh is only another name for Hartal and as a result of court order political parties do not use the word Bandh and use the word 'Hartal' to avoid court action.

The sad part of a Hartal is that it affects only the common man and the person against whom it is pointed might not even know about it. For example today’s Hartal is against oil companies or the ruling coalition parties at the Centre. While the common people get stranded in bus stops and railway stations the ruling elite and Oil Company Heads stay oblivious of it.

The violence and death are not uncommon during Hartal. There are brain-washed loyal workers for all political parties and they indulge in violence against those who question their actions like forcibly shutting shops or stopping vehicles.

The Hartal is a communist strategy and two communist dominant states in India, Bengal and kerala, undergo them frequently.  However since Mamata Banerjee took over in Bengal the Hartals are not practiced there as a weapon against the Central Government. When off from power, the ruling congress too calls for Hartals if it suits them politically.

Images from Google


Monday, November 14, 2011

KERALA: IN NEED OF SOME COURTSEY

Kerala, the southern most State of India is endowed with natural beauty in order to claim in the tourist brochures as ' God's own country'.The indices on child mortality, general health care and living standard are too not bad. It is also from this Indian state that highest number of persons go for work in abroad especially to Gulf counties. Although there is still poverty at the lowest level, people generally have cash to spend and the Mobile phone density is one of the highest in India. The youngsters are just awaiting to buy the newest models as they hit the market.

Now let us go to a news report of a tragic death of an young man, named Shaheed Bava last Wednesday. He was hailing from Cheruvady, near Mukkam, employed in the Gulf,  he was on leave here. It is said that he was frequenting a house where only two women resided and the local youngsters had  warned him not to visit there again. However the locals found him there again on the fateful night last Wednesday. Messages flew back and forth from the Mobles and within no time there was a sizable crowd there in the night.They tied him to a tree and started beating even with iron rods. He became unconscious and blood was oozing from all over the body. On hearing the incident the relatives of the poor young man reached on the spot and they tried to take him to the Hospital. The angry mob did not allow it and he layed there nearly for two hours on the road before Police came and rescued the young man to the Hospital where he died on Sunday in coma.

A similar incident took place in a bus in central Kerala. A young man was accused as pickpocket in the bus and he was beaten to death on the spot.

On reading all these if you thought that the people of kerala are impeccable moralists there is another think coming. Know that Kerala is almost a foremost State in India for child  sex abuse and women sex trafficking. People indulge in secret affairs and then come out in the open and vent their guilt-consceince on an hapless, less clever persons, a moral policing to escape from their own guilt.

Then it would be thought that the people in kerala have quick response and initiative on events taking place around them. I wish they had. Kerala is densely vehicle-populated State with notoriously bad roads, as such, road accidents are a daily event ( also first in number of accidents ) and people laying in a pool of blood on the road are a frequent sight.

There, at the accident site, a huge crowd  would be standing around the unfortunate accident victim  without doing nothing to help the person lying in need of immediate  hospitalization. The crowd, some talking in a hushed voice, some pensively looking at the poor man on the road or some taking photos of the blood-bathed person. But no one would take the initiative to take him to the hospital and  a police team has to arrive from far off places to do that. Many accident victims die just because they were not brought to hospital in time.

The favorite cuisines for the crowd are sex offenders and pick pockets and once any unfortunate one was caught  the mob would  ensure that the person did not see the next sunrise.

On reading all  these, do not jump to a conclusion that the poeple of Kerala are all some sort of brutes or aborigines. Instead, individually all persons are nice and good to deal with.like anywhere in the world but collectively they are a different entity and a very dangerous, merciless entity at that.

  This trend started recently, after economic progress and it raises a question whether economic progress has hidden dangers like this.