Common Man's Bandh

Various parts of India were terribly impacted by the BJP/Left led bandh.

Several offices declared a compensatory off with employees having to come some other day in lieu.

Some schools declared holiday for kids.

Innumerable commuters faced hassles in commuting to and fro from the office. (The smart ones left home at seven in the morning to reach office at eight and left office at seven in the evening thereby avoiding the “pleasure” of meeting the mob)

Patients suffered because they could not receive treatments in time.

Public and private vehicles punctured or man-handled or even set ablaze.

Liters of fuel must have been wasted while the vehicles were stuck in the jams.

The supposed message of “protest” against price rise somehow got lost in this entire charade!!! To an untrained eye, it may seem that the sole purpose of this “protest” was to create as much inconvenience to the general public and an embarrassment to the government. The actual concerns of the public be damned!

And by the way; who did gain from the Bandh? Certainly not the aam aadmi (common man). Did the daily wage earner, on whose behalf the bandh was actually called, get his share of food? Who will compensate the laborers, taxi and auto drivers of the daily wage that they lost today? Will the BJP and the left party be willing to reimburse their wages for the day? So what is the point of such a protest if not to create a political drama for the sake of a few votes?

On the bright side, no traffic jams while coming back home so a smooth drive. But as one of the RJs on a music station said if we can have jam free commute only when we have such "Bandhs", it probably isn't something to be particulalrly happy about!!!

Update: According to various estimates from CII, FICCI, Assocham etc.; the one day Bharat Bandh has been estimated to have costed any thing between Rs 3,000 to 13,000 crore in terms of GDP at factor cost. The worst affected are daily wage earners and people dependent on small trade (Ofcourse!!!)