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Ban The Bandh And Save The State
By: R.S. Mooshahary

The other day the Deputy Commissioner of a lower Assam district tells me that in his district the bandh call is not always for a public issue but equally for internecine fights. If an organization calls and imposes a bandh for, say, to press for ST status the parallel organization too will repeat it in the days following ostensibly for the same purpose but in reality to play one-upmanship over its rival. He says there are 50 to 60 bandhs in a year in his district, which include road / rail blockades, chakka jams, picketing, etc. This is an ugly political small pox erupting all over with unbound contagion.

The 300 hours bandh call from 17 October by some Koch- Rajbangshi group organizations demanding ST status is a symptom of this disease. The bandh enthusiasts must know that it is a self-defeating strategy as a form of protest because the main issue is relegated to the background and the bandh itself becomes the focal point because of the suffering it inflicts on the people. The much-hyped Tamil Nadu bandh on 1 October is an example. People remember that on Supreme Court’s direction that bandh had to be aborted and that a contempt case is pending alleging violation of its order in the Supreme Court. People hardly remember the purpose for which the bandh call was made.

The Supreme Court’s decision in that connection on 30 September provides a ray of hope. It is an instance of vox populi finding expression through judicial voice. Though that was not the first time the judiciary had ruled bandh to be illegal, the urgency of the matter got accentuated this time as the Supreme Court heard the case on a Sunday and handed down the direction to the Tamil Nadu government in the evening. The Chief Minister had no alternative but to comply with the order though as an expression of protest he resorted to fasting, which itself was cut short to three hours instead of the proposed day-long program to escape the adverse conclusion by the Supreme Court. On the next day when the Apex Court was informed that the bandh was observed it came down heavily on the state government and even hinted that it would recommend its removal on ground of failure of the constitutional machinery in the state. Let us hope that the Apex Court will provide permanent relief to the people from this menace of bandh syndrome.

While it is necessary in a democracy to enable people to launch protests against the authorities and make them hear the grievances of the people, it is a more important content of democracy that the citizens enjoy the right to live their life in peaceful and orderly conditions. Bandh today has assumed the characteristics of terrorism – it terrorizes the people into submission, which does not allow them a choice to do anything else. It forces them to great hardship and loss of days’ work and earning. The terrorists strike at the selected target to terrorize people but the sponsors of bandh spreads their terror tactics to a wider area by camouflaging it as people’s display of resentment against the authorities. Militancy has harmed the state and the bandh is nothing but a militant way of achieving its objectives. It is destroying the state, its work culture and social cohesiveness without achieving anything at all. The bandh enthusiasts do not realize that the government is immune from pressure through such coercive methods and the frequency of its practice makes it impossible for any government even to take any notice of it. It thus ceases to be against-government movement and instead assumes the anti-people role. It benefits no one except possibly those who are paid irrespective of whether a job is done or not like the government functionaries for whom each day of bandh is an extra holiday adding to the long list of official holidays.

If the bandhs could resolve the issues surely the state would have been problem-free by now. Instead, every bandh pushes the state a step further into economic and social disarray. The bandh brigades have no concern for the citizens or for economic health of the state. They are selfish with no sense of accountability and compassion for the people. Purely on economic consideration, it is roughly estimated that a day’s bandh cost rupees 50 crores four years ago. At today’s rate, it may be anything up to 100 crores a day. In a year if there are about 60 bandhs in the state the loss would amount to rupees 6000 crores and that translates to a per capita loss of rupees 2000 for the 3 crores people of the state. That is a month’s wages for a poor daily wage earner. There is even greater loss than this in terms of human suffering which is beyond quantification. The bitterness of denial of rights during the bandh is long lasting and it creates a sense of cynicism in all. The frustration arising out of it finds expression in social and group tension leading to more violence and lawlessness.

Despite the rulings by the courts that bandh is illegal the government finds it difficult to stop it because at times it is also a party to this illegal form of protest. Democracy offers a wide range of avenues for protest and articulation of differences without putting a stop to normal life. In an article, a former Chief Justice of a High Court expressed that the Supreme Court had exceeded its limit in banning the bandh in Tamil Nadu because it is a political right. Surely, the political freedom cannot subvert the fundamental rights of citizens to peacefully follow their avocation without intimidation and violence, to move without the danger of attack to places of work, to hospitals, educational institutions and travel by road, rail or air. Between the fundamental rights and the political right, the former must prevail lest the latter should cease to exist. Besides whose political right is this anyway when there is no single political party in India that can claim the majority support of the people?

Any bandh call, irrespective of the extent of area in which it is enforced creates bottleneck in communication and hampers normal activities of life in the entire area. A bandh in Kokrajhar or Dhubri district chokes the whole of northeast and government, which is responsible for maintenance of law and order, has failed to prevent it. Bandh invariably results in damages to life and property and in 2004, the Mumbai High Court directed the BJP and the Shiv Sena to compensate the loss of 20 lakh rupees for damages. It was a landmark decision and should be taken as a reference point in dealing with bandh hooliganism.

It is time for the governments to act now lest the courts force it on them as it happened in 2006 when the Supreme Court forced the governments at the centre and the states to enact a new Police Act because they failed to respond to a crying public need. Assam being the gateway state to the entire region of northeast must take the lead to eradicate this scourge and save the state. It should enact a law banning the bandh and for recovering the cost of damages to life and property in the course of public display of protest or in public assemblage from the organizers responsible for such acts. It will prove to the world that it is no longer the land of lahe lahe but of initiative and action.

The write, a former Director General of Police in Kerala and Director General of Border Security Force and the National Security Guard, is currently the State Chief Information Commissioner, Assam