I have always wondered, why does our breed of Politicians not wake up and see the futility in the myraid way of ways of politics they practice, the ultimate form of protest – The BANDH. To protest they still resort to and use this old colonial way of protest. Bandh or stopping work was effective when you wanted to slow down production and hurt the British East India Company. Nowhere in the World is such a form of protest prevalent. What a Bandh really does achieve is that it forcefully brings the State or Country to a standstill. Besides causing a lot of genuine hardship to a lot of people. What does the daily wager do ? He curses this period of non-activity, because what it entails is that he and his family has to go hungry. But who cares, certainly not the Politician who knows that when the time comes he can certainly buy their votes.

Instead why can they not use a more effective mass media tool which is available. Use Mass Mailing protest, Mass SMS’s or any such electronic form of reach out which besides giving a lot of penetration would dissuade people from having a forced holiday. The Political Bodies calling for these Bandhs should actually be asked to pay for the loss of production for that single day which would cause loss in crores which no one at least not the Country afford.

I was reading an article today about some survey conducted by The Times, where the Child born in this Century would be oblivious to many of the “hardships” their parents had to undergo, like growing up without a cell phone, or eating at Dominos, McDonald’s etc etc. So why then should the Gen Next be made aware to this malady of “Bandh”. Why can this very frivolous and extravagant show of mass protest be publicly banned.

This is one Democratic right which should be declared darconian and amended so as to allow normal live to go on despite whatever decisions are taken by the ruling Government. I for one fail to understand as to how is it ever possible that calling for a Bandh can make the Government stop their policies from going through. Ever since my living years I am yet to see one reversal of any decision taken by the Government because of the result of a BANDH…then why call for it in the first place.