A lot has been written about our so called dysfunctional political system and even more about the politicos who attempt to drive it. And then there is more.
Today's Bharat Bandh was supposed to be a quiet way of telling our government that "Aam Aadmi" is taking a big beating owing to the recent fuel price hike. Unfortunately it was a different story all together. For many years now,I have been hearing that these so called bandhs are an apt opportunity for the miscreants to create ruckus and civil unrest.
Today! I experienced it first hand.
The bandh that was planned to voice the opinion of "Aam Aadmi", reduced to a set of protests which ended up troubling the same poor soul. Like every other bandh day, I decided to start early for office so that I manage to travel across Delhi without a glitch. Every other bandh had started only by 0900 hrs.
But this one was different. They took us by surprise.
The digital time keeper of my car had not even shown 0830 hours when suddenly my breezy drive came to a sudden halt. Out of nowhere emerged scores of protesters who then blocked the national highway 24 ( near Akshardham Temple). I froze...
Never in my life had I seen saw many policemen in front of me - agitated, confused, annoyed, exasperated, prepared. The policeman also quickly took up their posts. It was going to be a long day.
The protests were anything but peaceful. Tyres punctured, effigies burnt, slogans raised, commuters manhandled, Metro stopped and so on so forth.
Amidst all this chaos and mayhem, nobody was worried about the hidden cost of this protest- loss of valuable man hours, damage to state property, fuel wastage and exponential amount of anguish.
Till when would we allow these so called nation builders to take out their personal vendetta by harassing the public, by making us their guinea pigs? Burning an effigy will help in rolling back the price hike- Says who? Puncturing the tyres of a school bus will definitely make the government change their decision- Says who? Banging hands on my car's bonnet will solve the price hike- Says who?
This charade should be put to an end before it takes an unmanageable form. The question is - who, when, where and how will this be achieved.
Today, I was lucky that I was one of the first ones to get stuck in this bandh and thus I was also one of the first ones to escape from its clutches. But while I heaved a sigh of relief and rushed back home.....
I saw a snarl shaping up, already sprawling over 7 kilometers.
The day had just begun. It was going to be a long day.
