Are we achieving anything with this Nation wide bandh?

Thanks for invite Disha,

Yet the figures you quote affect only 0.01percent whilst the majority who are affected by price rise either do not have the time to spare even to care for their own interests or lack incline, both of which indicate we predominantly want other to carry the dirty baggage for us forever and this is not healthy for any democracy.  Else, can we say the price rise is justified and the farmer is happy, the manufacturer is happy and so on, which is not the case. How can we justify blaming the opposition with the knowledge that they tried to take up the issue in parliament but failed.

On the other hand if people entrusted with governance care only for scoring brownie points over opposition and not on real issue of prices and if it is also true the governmental spending seriously needs to come in control, we are surely heading in direction of causing loss of credibility of many an institution by our support criteria and reasoning.

It is time the thus called educated elite wakes up and takes notice of miseries of millions of fellow citizen and forces government to course correct whenever and wherever they falter without distinction on Who. 

I am totally agree with your views. at least you should show that you are alive & possess  the power to protest.lt certainly makes some impact atleast .

Dish mam, Every Thing should not be measure in terms of revenue,it will affect or not ? one has to raise questions if injustice occur.Today they did hike in one commodity tomorrow will in another. & people get hurt b'cause they goes against bandh.They are rich enough so not been affected by inflation so they try to do their usual work. but what about poor ? he is not able to get two times bread & butter. for sake of him BJP called bandh .Otherwise they thousand other5 way to prove their political strength.

We need to show our embarrassments to government for whatever they are doing is not right.  Else politicians/govt always take us  for granted.  We need to unite and fight this way.

Nation wide Bandh (NWB) is not the first time story but it has happened through the history.

We always tends to evaluate the success by the immediate material gain, and that is not our fault but our minds are shaped in that direction. After this Bandh, many Indians get disappointed because the next day they have to purchase their Daal/ Aata with no price differences. This obviously make them to say that this Bandh was useless.

For some Nation Wide Bandh was the drama set in by political parties to show their strengths through the successful Bandh.

All these arguments and angst among the common man is justified.

However, if we look at the objectives of the Bandh, I think we have achieved a significant success.

1ST Objective of this Bandh was to warn the Government about the crisis situations which is affecting the common man and second objective was that the Government must be on their toes while even thinking to increase the further prices of essential commodities.I think after showing the powerpacked performance by the people SARKAR will not dare to do further hikes in the essential commodities.

Most importantly this Bandh was "Sarwapakshiya"-from all parties. therefore this suggest the strong opposition and to some extent the final call to Government. this has the bigger political turn out motives which will not benifit common man at instance but in slow manner.

Salute to those who have participated in Bandh and has shown some sparks of agitation. Revolution start in this way only.

Yes. I know there was disruption. I agree. One important point that is missing in the entire scenario is the opening of Rilance Petrol Outlets on the same day. You should know that the prices are liberalized or made to be on par with international prices not to help Indian economy. It is to help the defunct Reliance petrol bunks to open. Make place for MNCs who are reeling under pressure from environmental groups vis a vis BP oil spill. It is neither in the interest of Indians nor Indian economy. Should we not protest for it? It is a fraud on Indians by politicians.

This is a proRich and Elitist question, though we know that :

"Every action has its opposite equal reaction - Newton"

When Fuel Price rise is declared, what the Nation achieves ?

- loot of common man pocket - coffer of Oil Companies, some are Private are filled up ( all untrue stories that Oil Cos are in loss )

- the rich is un-touched ( they donate hefty sum for elections )

- poor made poorer, they are pushed for more starving

International Price :

- the wages, salaries are pure Indian, rising food prices are Indian, all other things Indian, only fuel price is International - U the Govt. think the common man fools ?

- even our price is more than International price - who and how this price is fixed - who to answer to the common man ?

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It is often said taht " common man has nothing 2loose" , one more starved day out of 365 days.

Govt. has the power to decide any thing  - but common man is bound to protest and that  is democracy.

I agree with Sunita, Bharath Bandh had an agenda and it was a show of support by the political (opposition) party drawing a line of tolerance towards price rise.

We may not have achieved anything tangible as such by these type of Bandhs but can we deny the fact that the Bandhs are also a form of showing public resentment against the establishment of the day, be it of any party. Democracy has deep roots in India, possibly, I was going through one of the programs in Doordarshan recently, more than 150 years old. This was amply used by Gandhiji as weapon against the British, showing public non cooperation by non violence means, resorting to occasional hartals or bandhs too. Dont you feel that this sort of registering protests are something which comes to us naturally. Of course this Bandhs create public discomfiture and ultimately the loss incurred have to be borne by the public and the worst part is that the forceful Bandhs do cause public damage to property and loss to life which is indeed very reprehensible. But is there a solution, an alternative? The opposition who are also neck deep in corruption along with the ruling party does not even take part in meaningful debates which concerns with common man, it always wants to play to the gallery and selectively raise the issue where it is needed, that is on the floor of the Parliament or state legislatures. Come to think of it do you find a single leader in India right now on whose call people selflessly or voluntarily chose to strike on a big scale, forget about the country or state, even a town cannot be closed voluntarily on a call in India right now from an individual or a group who is so morally right and has political support. So naturally the leaders have to resort to forceful Bandhs, which are no doubt not the solution, but is there a way out to show public anger to govt policies? Not surprisingly Bandhs have become the most handy tool in the hands of politicians, Maoists, narrow minded social groups who want to make a flash on the media by adopting the shock factor in the news. They do anything which disrupts normal life. We are morally dead, utterly corrupt and short sighted, dont rise above the personal interest, how can we see the nation? Of course we are writing and venting our anger in various foras, but I am reasonably sure that, given a chance, I may too become corrupt when given a chance to enter the system, who knows? What then the common man do? In fact I venture out to say that this is the state of chaos and this trend will continue till a viable option is available. Till then the common man has to think and act responsibly and start protesting the wrongs in their own small ways. Media, which has a tendency to make a personal marriage to make a national affairs should constantly take up common man issue more regularly and in a sustained way, as it is the opinion maker and its this sound which even politicians cannot afford to ignore, so that the govt of the day listens to the public. Its not impossible, have we not seen the cases like Ruchika reopen due to sustained media activitism and rallying the public support to a noble cause? But this has to me more frequent and slowly we can see the change happening everywhere and we can feel the ripples all across. It will taek time, but it will, we have to be optimistic. But till then Bandhs are a way of life and we have to live with it.  

I am totally agrees with the view of Sunita. Every body is pointing out loss of man hours,national loss,poor man's wages loss.etc.etc.. But is there any man who thinks for the leaving of poor man?One has to raise voice against the DEF government.P.M. is a known and knowledgeable economist (as per the media report!) and the Janta is starving for food. Our total economy  is in the hands of Business Giants,and  corrupted Politicians.So many millionaire are generated every year but common man turns to poor and poor becomes poorer,this is the gist of our working.

Why we should not protest against increase on our petroleum products?In comparison to other Nations,our government is taking highest taxes/rates on petroleum products, even though  Government is in losses always?Where the income of such huge taxes are going?On high ways toll taxes levies,in residence corporation taxes,on grocery vat levies,Custom,Excise,Income tax,Service tax,etc etc.. all these taxes making huge revenue for influence business man and corrupted politicians through their departments and the main beneficiary common man crying for Food.

It is high time to teach Lesson to all corrupted politicians and inefficient Government.We can starve for a day but we must raise our voice against such corrupted working and injustice.You are collecting taxes from us for your betterment and leaving us to starve for food.

Bhagatsingh should have taken birth in this century.!

If the argument is do we achieve anything by Bandh and agitation,

Then we never would have got freedom in 1947, because people would have asked are we going to get freedom after this bandh every time Gandhi or Neheru or other people called strike  :)

Another thing is, there are people who earn rs 20 every day, for them Bandh is defenitely no lunch one day, but with such price rise, no lunch for years to come.

So we want those poor to become stone pelters like in Kashmir? Do we want them to become Maoists like they became in Bengal, Bihar, Chattishgahr,And other parts?

So what is the way out to say loud to govt? no way? Sit idle? so that IT companies can run and import exports dont stop a single day? and so that we dont loose 1000 crores?

Sometimes think about the poorest people too when we say our economy going to loose 1000 crores..whats use of those 1000 crores when poorest of the Indians become anti nationals being defeated by the load of Price?

Think!!

Bandhs are the most peaceful way of projecting one's opposition to any uncalled for action by a government. The other way is to resort to stone throwing , burning buses etc as in Kashmir. Let us not talk about loss of production, and loss to the exchequer . We lose every day huge resources thanks to the lethargy and inefficiency of the powers that be. That is a different topic altogether. In this particular case the government had absolutely no cause for increasing prices. If they want to decontrol petroleum preices then they should first of all delete all taxes and dutiesfrom the product. Allow it to float and find its true market price. Taxing should be on the profits made by the oil companies. This will not only ease the burden on the common man but also give a fillip to the economy by reducing inflation.Government should not always take the easy way out. Why are they not concentrating on improving the roads and making travel smoother. The saving on oil consumption would be huge. Thanks to Bachpai we have excellent Highways and they have already shown huge savings on oil consumption. It is time the people sitting in the government found out less easy methods of solving their problems.

Disha my opinion is different than U. Keeping profit and  loss a side think is government working keeping Aam Aadmi in their view.Are they listening our voice ? No, because they are moral less. They are faithful to themselves not for nation.

Only  public boom will make them awake .Some time which is not write way but shake of whole system awareness needs to we have follow.

I have different opinion than you, Disha & for that I am giving petrol prices of our neighboring country.Please have a look.

Petrol prices in Rs. per liter

1) In Pakistan : Rs.26

2)Bangladesh : Rs.22

3)Cuba : Rs.19

4)Nepal : Rs.34

5)Burma : Rs.30

6)Afganistan : Rs.36

7)India : Rs.53

Basic cost of petrol per liter is 16.50 + center tax= 11.80 +excise duty = 9.75 + state tax = 8.00 + vat /cess =4.& total comes to 50.05. Then where does 3 rupees go?What a shameless job done by this Govt? This is how our country governed?

& let me clear you one thing that this is not a sudden step taken by opposition parties, as they are opposing it from last 6 months still the UPA Govt. did not take any action for price controll.

Agriculture minister have more interest in Cricket than agriculture & poor farmers.Continuously for last 2 to 3 years he is man of continuous failures but still not Mr. Dr. Manmohaningh nor Ms. Sonia have courage to sack him.

& you are talking about nation loss & etc........Please tell me when no. of employees are spending their quality time of work in smoking & watching live telecast of day cricket matches & doing personal work in office hours at that time why they are not feeling ashame of theirselves?

& you tell me what is your reaction about indefinate bandh called by Naxalites in 5 states? Are ordinary people from that states have will to participate in it? Why this UPA GOvt. did not take any action against them?

No one called for a 'Bandh" by heart/will but it is the last tool given by constitution of India to the opposition parties & this is the only second time that parties like B.J.P. & Left Front who have different idiologies but at the same platform which is against current UPA GOVT.

& you are talking this because there is no price correction in any item till now, but suppose the fuel price will be revised then you should thankful for this bandh because I think no one is bothering for nation's loss b'coz as a normal humanbeing, we all are interested in an individual's/self gain/profit.

& if you are not agreed to my statement, then please just think for a while & ask to yourself that while filing a income-tax return how many of us shows their all income from their known & unknown sources? Is this is not a national loss? If yes then why we are not showing our true income? As a good Indian citizen you are also aware that this money is used for development work of the nation. Then are you fooling your country? Yes you are! Then you have no right to talk again Bandh b'coz you are talking of only your rights & running away from your responsibility.

Bandh is opposition partrty's responsibility to awake this UPA GOVT.

&

still you did not want any more Bandh then please tell this UPA Govt. to pass a resolution against all types of 'Bandhs".

Yes, why not!!!

We are achieving the status of a GOOD OPPOSITION despite country pushed back on toes.

We are achieving few names with cadre in political arena despite common man has to pay the price of this bandh.

We are trying to show the government that if you dont listen to our problems we will go on street in UNCONTROLLED way.

Our local leaders are achieving good names infront of national opposition leadres despite they force local shop owners/resturants to shut down by force & if not done then sabotage their business.

Our opposition is waiving V sign to the crowd & then go away in A/c Cars while local public starnded in traffic jam....

Yes we do achieve one thing for sure.

Work hard to fill the deficit caused by one days forced BANDH.

Agree with you view Mr Kandadai that Bandh or hartal is at best unwarranted, yet the same seriousness that it does not take place should as well be reflected by governance machinery by calling the opposition for talks.

Just because a class is not affected does not mean prices are not hurting anyone. And if indeed they are hurting what should anyone do about it.

Has the Government left any channels open for citizens to air their views on any subject.