The nationwide Bharath Bandh announced by various political and trade unions in support of the protesting farmers in Punjab met with mixed reactions across the country. While almost all of the country ignored the call for a complete shutdown of the state, Punjab and Kerala wholeheartedly participated in the bandh.
The use of bandh and hartal to cause inconvenience to the general public while scoring a few imaginary political brownie points has been the norm in the country for a long time now. With the highly charged up political environment within the country, party workers express extra zeal and enthusiasm to ensure that the whims of the political bosses are followed to the tee. Current protest leader Rakesh Tikait went ahead to so far as saying that it is ok that the public was inconvenienced for a day.
The prevalence of archaic methods of protest like bandhs and hartals where public transport, business, shops and establishments are forced to shut down is very common in the states of Kerala and West Bengal where the communist party still has a very strong influence. Other small pockets within the country extend support to these calls, once again with a higher following for the red flag.
The communist parties are not solely to blame as almost all political parties have used this method to rile up some PR whenever they felt that they needed to get some television or media footage. The irony is when the ruling party of a state decides to announce a bandh to protest against something.
The Bharath Bandh that was announced yesterday was to mark the first anniversary of the protests by farmers in the states of Punjab and Haryana over the 3 Farm Laws that were brought into practice by the central government. The NDA government claims that these laws are meant to reform the current setup and to empower the farmers while the farmer unions and trade unions believe otherwise.
They have been protesting ever since the government brought these laws into practice with the opposition parties adding fuel to the fire by openly spreading their versions of the laws and also incentivising unions that are affiliated with the parties to actively rally the support of as many farmers as possible.
The protesting farmers braved cruel weather and multiple rounds of talks with the government but their idea of a complete victory where the government will unconditionally repeal the laws has met with a dead end as the government has refused to relent believing that this will set an unwanted precedent.
Read the full article at - https://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/09/28/bharath-bandh-gives-kerala-hope-of-return-to-normalcy-amidst-covid19/