This past month there have been numerous bandhs all over Assam forsome reason or another. These all too frequent bandhs disrupt notjust public life, but have long term affects on the growth anddevelopment of the state. This is one big reason that investment in the state is not forthcomingas one would wish. Business losses are obviously shifted on to theconsumer in the way of higher prices or lower quality. For a statethat is burdened by so many other problems, bandhs are definitelyanti-social and anti-Assamese. Unfortunately, the public voices against these bandhs amount to littlemore than spitting in the air. Its the polititcians, Studentorganizations, workers' unions and and others who are solelyresponsible for such a state of affairs. I would venture, Assam probably leads in the number and frequency ofbandhs in the nation. I am sure it could be proved by some researcherthat there is a direct positive correlation between the number ofbandhs and the growth/development in a state. Frankly, its just more than disgusting! Here is an editorial from today's Sentinel depicting the sad state of affairs.____________________________________Condemnable Tactics Disruption of public life seems to have become the easiest form ofprotest in a society that has little to boast of by way of civicamenities and citizen's rights. Sudden bandhs, blocking of nationalhighways and the stalling of trains have become frequent and the mostcommon means of protest in the State these days. As if throwing otherpeople into great inconvenience is the only means of getting oneselfheard! Only a few days back, the busy National Highway 37 was blockedfor several hours by a group of people in Moran who were protestingthe sale of a particular plot of land by a tea-garden. The movement oftrains in Jorhat came to a halt for several hours because the peoplewere protesting the withdrawal of the inter-city train service to thattown. The list could go on. The example set by the political activistsis being quickly picked up by the other segments of society. While itis true that a weak government and an insensitive administration havebeen primarily responsible for the! growth of a situation, yet it isour political parties and student and youth organizations that havecontributed the most towards such forms of totally negative anddisruptive protest. This has been adequately reflected in the tacticsadopted by the supporters of Prafulla Kumar Mahanta to vent their ireagainst the expulsion of their leader from the party. Over the pastweek, there have been bandhs in several towns of the State and normallife has been seriously affected. Whom are these people protestingagainst by disrupting public life? In any democracy, the right toprotest is a sacrosanct one. But, that does not mean that one couldexercise this right in gross violation of the rights of othercitizens. The expulsion of Prafulla Mahanta is decidedly aninner-party affair of the Asom Gana Parishad as far as the people ofthe State are concerned. The supporters of Mahanta may have their ownreasons to be angry with their party's decision. But the way out doesnot lie in forcing other peo! ple, who have nothing to do with theparty, to share their anger through bandhs and road blocks. Though itis natural for political leaders to have exaggerated ideas aboutthemselves, yet for the man in the street the expulsion of Mahanta isjust one of the many dramatic occurrences in the State's politicalscene. Therefore, rushing out to the streets and bringing public lifeto a halt will serve little purpose. Rather, such tactics are bound toboomerang and alienate the people further. Therefore, the democraticcourse open for those AGP workers who are unhappy about the decisionon their leader, is either to quit the party or continue with theirefforts to make their viewpoint acceptable within the party. This isnot the first time that people of importance have been shuffled out oftheir organizations. There have been major splits in political partiesbefore. This could be said of all the major political parties of thecountry. But the manner in which a section of the AGP workers andsu! pporters have been holding public life to ransom and causing thehuge losses to the exchequer is, one must say, quite condemnable. Theseasoned politician that the former Chief Minister and AGP leader is,he should restrain his supporters from indulging in such disruptivetactics. He should tell them to vent their anger in a democraticmanner. The way his supporters have been behaving is only reflectiveof a sense of frustration at not being able to keep their hold overthe party. Now that he is faced with two alternatives as has beensummed up so succinctly by Purno Sangma — of either joining anotherparty or forming one of his own — Mahanta would surely need adisciplined band of people to re-build his political fortunes. Hecould begin by instilling discipline in his own supporters. _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [email protected] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
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