Fighting Bandh Culture
A lot has been said against the Nepali culture of ‘bandhs’ which means ‘general strike’. Whenever a strike is called for, everyone other than the supporters oppose it. But the opposing groups haven't been proved strong enough to stop this nonsense.
The reason is obvious. The country is sharply divided along the political lines and each political group has been calling for a bandh for this reason or that. Each successive bandh is thus becoming more violent as the successive organizers of the bandhs try to prove themselves more powerful force than others. Now bandh has become a culture. And it is obvious that a culture can’t be changed by government order alone. A cultural revolution is needed.
There may be several forms of such revolution. Here is one method:
Form an anti-bandh group, which can be named Forum, Brotherhood, Movement or whatever the initial organizers of the group may like to call it. Each member of the group should be required to religiously defy any bandh that may be called for. For example, he/she must take out his/her vehicle on the streets if there is a bandh called for. The members must be committed to fight this menace no matter who is the organizer of the bandh. This anti-bandh group should seek police help and the police must support the group. If the police do not come forward to provide protection to the vehicles and their owners that operate on the streets on bandha day, the anti-bandha group should lodge legal cases against the entire police force as well as the particular police officer concerned. This idea is based on the principle that if the police fail to protect the citizen, they don’t deserve to remain in the service.
The purpose of such campaign is not just to defy bandh and thereby lower the morale of bandh organizers but also to embolden the general people to defy the bandh. To begin with, this campaign can be launched in a limited area only. If it is successful in that small area, its scope can be widened further in the next bandh so that gradually the whole district and the entire country as well can be turned bandha-defiant.
The initiative in this regard should be made by the industrialists, traders, bankers or their associations such as FNCCI, Hotel Association of Nepal or Nepal Bankers' Association. They have been repeatedly pleading to the government, political parties and the civil society to end the culture of bandh. But such pleas have been proved futile. Therefore, they should now take this alternate course.
Initially, the area to defy a bandh can be a particular industrial district (such as Balaju or Patan) and around or an area where a good number of big corporate offices are concerntrated (like Durbarmarg and Kamaladi). The local chapters of the group can make similar selection of the locations of their anti-bandh movement in different districts.
Before actually starting this campaign, the group should clearly announce its intentions to the public and make the government and the police (including the police station of the locality selected) announce their support to such anti-bandh movement. Meanwhile, the group should also lobby with the government to enact a law with provisions that if the people who defy the bandh in the specified locality are harmed on the day of bandh (or within a specified time from that day), the chief of the organization that calls for the bandh will be held personally responsible and prosecuted. This will ensure that the organizers of the bandh will not have any excuse to blame the infiltrators for the violence related with the bandh. It will force them to be more disciplined. It will also ensure the democratic right of the people to call for a bandh if they feel that all other methods of protests are exhausted.
(By Arthaprakash Bidyarthi)
