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http://www.goa-world.com/goa/credit%5Ccredit.htm Stay tuned to Gulf Goans e-Newsletter - everyday someone, somewhere learns a little..... BJP’s Bharat Bandh - More for publicity then the cause. On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) caused a huge loss to the country, besides inconveniencing millions of countrymen and others, by calling for a nation wide strike to protest against the fuel price hike that is having a cascading effect on all other commodities edible or otherwise. Yes, everybody is aware of the fact that the prices of vegetables, fruits, cereals and other food products have sky rocketed for the last two years burning a hole in the pocket of the huge population of middle class section. And we can only imagine the plight of those living from hand to mouth and worse still of that section of our brethren surviving below the poverty line. Moreover, the billion odd population of this country is aware of the situation of spiraling prices and inflation, so also they are also aware of the coalition government’s efforts to curb the same, but the market forces and the turmoil in the global market just do not allow the government to subsidize the fuel prices any further. Just like any political party, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the Congress would not like to dent its vote bank by simply increasing the prices of the essential commodities for whims and fancies. And especially with noted economist in Dr. Manmohan Singh at the helm of affairs of the country as Prime Minister, most Indians like myself have the confidence that he has applied his mind to the issue. But that it has not translated into decrease in prices is something that the government has to be made aware of, but that does not mean crippling the entire nation and increasing the hardship of its citizens. I recall, while on the brink of donning the mantle of prime ministership his wife’s Gurusharan Kaur had made only one request of him and that was not to raise the price of cooking gas, but couple of months later it was hiked. If one introspects on this issue, one can realize that Dr. Manmohan Singh took the reigns of the nation from the BJP, during whose tenure prices of fuel were also hiked and his better half knew very well that another price hike was inevitable. At that time it was explained to the people of this country that the government was not increasing the price but cutting on the subsidies, which means that all these years the people of this country have been paying only part cost of the gas cylinder and other fuels while the rest was borne by the Union government. Thus slowly the government is phasing out the subsidies of the “haves” and diverting the money to “have nots’. If the NDA was in the governing seat it would have done exactly what UPA is doing. Thus resorting to nationwide bandh the BJP and it allies have done more damage to the economy of the country, first it has disrupted a day’s revenue to the country to the tune of thousands of crores, it has thrown interstate trade off gear thus causing a temporary shortage of commodities and worse still the BJP has denied the poor Indian who is living from hand to mouth the opportunity to earn his daily bread. Road, rail and air traffic was badly effected. Can a developing nation and a growing economy like India afford such disruptions. BJP should realize that strikes and bandhs are tactics of the past and in the globalized world one cannot resort to such gimmicks for sake of publicity. Instead of putting up a public show of strength of hooligans in its party fold who went about ransacking stores, beating up people, pelting stones and resorting to violence throughout the country, what the intelligentsia in the BJP should have done is try to find a solution through a proper debate in the parliament or demanded an all party meeting on how to tackle the issue. However, over the past few years we have seen the BJP’s disgraceful contribution in the august house, disrupting the proceeding in the parliament by rushing to the well of the house, hurling missiles at the chair, grabbing documents from the table of the Lok Sabha Speaker leading to adjournments, walk-outs and casting aspersions on the ruling parties. If they were really interested in the hardship of the people of this country, they should have debated and forced the government to find a solution to the spiraling prices, but no, what the BJP and its allies have done on Monday is more for publicity then the cause, otherwise by paralysizing the country have they provided solution to the problem. Again no, it has only caused hardship to Indians. This reminds me of a rasta roko, resorted to by the BJP to protest the closure of the Zuari bridge for heavy traffic to carry out some repairs. At that Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt starrer ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ was being run in theatres and the BJP tried to imitate his form of protest. Gandhigiri was the word in vogue for protest. So the BJP and its cadres blocked both the entry points of the bridge and even refused to allow two wheelers and light motor vehicles to cross over the bridge thus causing hardship to people who otherwise would have traveled without hassle and this the BJP called Gandhigiri, ironically the BJP and its RSS cadres forgot that it was RSS only who had shot dead the Father of the Nation – Mahatma Gandhi but they had the cheek to take his name in vain. Be that as it may, the top echelons of the BJP party displayed their cowdice, immediately after leading the bandh, they courted arrest and disappeared from the scene leaving their lower rung to face the lathis. The question is has the bandh which crippled the entire country brought us any closer to the solving the problem of price rise. The answer is obvious; infact the BJP and it allies which supported the bandh has compounded the problem. From the time this divisive party gave a call to the bandh, it was obvious that their agenda was not to find a solution to the problem but either to get publicity and derive political mileage out of it or to polarize voters knowing very well that their votebank across the country is dwindling. Send your comments/reactions to [email protected] or SMS 9422437029) Bharat Bandh disrupts air, rail traffic http://www.ndtv.com/news/photos/album-details.php?id=7283&Album=PHOTO_GALLERY&AlbumTitle=Bharat+Bandh+disrupts+air%2C+rail+traffic To contact us email [email protected] copying [email protected] KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOURS IN GOA http://electionsgoa.nic.in/html/constituency.html www.colaco.net www.v-ixtt.com http://tiatracademy.blogspot.com The ‘crab’ mentality is a malady which, I believe, is very much prevalent amongst the Goans. To quote a popular couplet “Let dogs bark, the Caravan will go on”. Mario Miranda, Loutolim. Goa Today/August 2000 Gulf-Goans e-Newsletter presented by goa-world.com team http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/gulf-goans
