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It is high time that we bid adieu to the brutal and unscrupulous way of protest termed ‘hartal’. The ‘HARTAL’ is a great challenge against ‘The Constitution of India’. The constitution guarantees every citizen of India, the right of freedom. Right to Freedom All citizens shall have the right— (a) to freedom of speech and expression; (b) to assemble peaceably and without arms; (c) to form associations or unions; (d) to move freely throughout the territory of India; (e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India; (g) to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business. — Quoted from The Constitution of India While the constitution guarantees the protestors the freedom of speech and expression, freedom to assemble, to form associations or unions; it guarantees something to us too. How can a political party stop us from moving freely? How can it deny practicing our profession? The worst condition occurs when people who support ‘hartal’, stop vehicles on roads. They stop even the emergency services, like the ambulances. There are cases of patient’s dying because of being trapped in a ‘hartal’. These ‘hartal’ may be called by silly political parties for silly reasons, which always affect the common people. It’s a matter of pity that the politicians neither understand what the people want, nor the loss the people and the state incur due to a day of shutdown. Or, are they pretending to not understand this? After every hartal, the party that organizes it would say, ‘It was a great success’. Yes, it is, because it is fear-mongering that wins hartals in Kerala, and nothing else! People choose to ‘stay out of trouble’, rather than participate to make the hartal a success Apart from this, the protestors destroy public properties, cause a large loss to the economy of the country directly and indirectly by denying people to work. Everyone — the banker, the baker, the butcher, the student, the shopkeeper — suffers. The economy suffers, the system suffers, the state’s image suffers. Each and every individual in this country has to decide that we won’t sit at home again during these hartal days. We go to work, we drive, we play, we do whatever we like. As the old proverb says “United we stand, divided we fall”, so it is our duty to stand together and oppose against these political parties who divide us in the form of caste, creed, etc. Let’s hold our hands together to oppose against hartals. |
