Friday, July 2, 2010

Not another hartal!

It’s frighteningly easy to hurt another person. It’s also called sadism. It’s easier still to hurt someone else when driven by a sense of righteousness. It’s still called sadism though.
Hold that thought for a moment while you digest this:
"If needed, we will hold hartals every day till the Union Government reverses its decision.’’
A line from The New Indian Express quoting a comment reportedly made by A. A. Azeez, a functionary of the Revolutionary Socialist Party in Kerala, during a press conference. And that’s not all; he also apparently said that ‘the burden of the petrol price hike was severe (sic) than the trouble caused by hartals.’
All this to justify the call for another hartal — the second in 10 days — to protest against the recent decision to raise the prices of petroleum products and to let some fuel prices be determined by market forces. His views are obviously shared by politicians of all hues who are backing the call for an all-India bandh /hartal on July 5 as this story in The Hindu says.
Time perhaps, for an enterprising media company to put together a hartal-based reality show.

2 comments:

Mee said...

Y'day was the 24th bandh in Kerala this year -That's like one a week. Truly not a desirable state. And btw, an article I read says that Kerala had 50 bandhs in 2009. So things are pretty much on schedule this year:(

Mee said...

Ironical and shambolic. Sometimes when these situations come to head don't you wonder how as a people all in this nation, will thrive and prosper?:(