A Day of Shame

Monday 12^th Sept, was a day of shame for Karnataka State.Never before had been seen such wanton acts of violence, arson, destruction of public and private property and such total helplessness of the administration.

We are all aware of the anatomy of every bundh.All bundhs start with a proclamation  of peaceful demonstrations but what happens is total mayhem. Blocked highways and rail roads, burning tyres, stone- throwing, destruction of public and private property and forcible closure of businesses are the usual scenes. All these are unlawful and hardly peaceful and quite  detrimental to the economy and image of the city and the country. It is sad that in many States the local governments are also complicit totally disregarding  the plight of lakhs who depend on daily earnings for sustaining their families.The “common people” in whose name the bundhs are organised are really the victims of these disruptions.

In some States as in Kerala many years ago the courts  imposed restrictions and penalties on these bundh-makers.Unfortunately the governments have been lax in enforcing these restrictions. Votes become the consideration and the national interests are subordinated to party aims.

In Bangalore on 12^th Sept. large-scale agitation was expected by the city while awaiting the Supreme Court order of that day but the government and the Police seemed to be unprepared for the  scale of the mayhem. When the police did make their appearance  the city had already been taken over by rampaging mobs of lumpen elements and known groups of professional bundh-makers. The full scale of the devastation was seen thanks to TV and it was frightening.

Clusters of street urchins and goons, unlikely supporters of any civic cause, some carrying back-packs, stoned and  shattered glass frontages of buildings,  turned parked vehicles upside down and set them alight and even forced a driver out of his lumbering car-carrier, fortunately empty, and set fire to the vehicle. Fifty buses of one company, parked in their parking lot. were burnt down by miscreants. In a short while most of Bangalore’s main roads were full of burning vehicles.

The police who should normally have the power to enforce the law on their own initiative have generally been emasculated by politics. They are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. It was only after the Central RAF arrived that the police presence became really visible. But then the deployment was uneven with some disturbed areas with no police  and some with too many. Some well-known rabble-rousers were leading some of the processions and were seen arguing with the Police who, I thought, treated them with undeserved  courtesy.

In most organised cities, there would have been preventive arrests of known trouble-makers and mobile and static armed police patrols in a show of force. A retired police chief  was saying that in crunch situations as existed yesterday with uncontrolled  violence his old-fashioned police would have sent a police jeep with a loud-speaker ordering the crowd to disperse. There would be a warning of “shoot-at-sight” . He said the maximum that had to be done to disperse a motley crowd,unlike an organised demonstration for a cause, were a couple of shots in the air. He added that when frenzied mobs were running riot there just had to be an immediate, dominating show and use of force.

The Centre needs to take note of the wider national impact of such disturbances in Important business centres such as Chennai and Bangalore.It should be remembered that most marketing conditions lie outside the Centre’s control with the States.We cannot ignore the immaturity of our politics in  which narrow party interests often dominate national causes. Our politics and politicians need to grow up fast if PM Modi’s ambitious plans are to turn into reality. It would be a crying shame if we did not capitalise on our growing opportunities to be a commercial and industrial hub.

Bangalore has had three bundhs in the last few weeks  and with the most recent three days of lock-down and violence the loss resulting from the bundhs runs into thousands of crores. The States and Centre have to deal with this issue urgently. The Inter-State Council and the National Development Council of which little has been heard for quite some time provided  good and regular meeting opportunities for the PM and the Chief Ministers for useful interaction and personal acquaintance.

The States would now have to be graded according to their business-friendliness and available investment opportunities have to be directed accordingly. A panel of representatives from CII, Assocham and FICCI, State and Central governments and chaired by the Commerce Minister  should fix the grading parameters. The earlier this is done the better it would be. What is certain is that the mindless bundh trend has to be halted if the national economy is to flourish. Ambitious development plans need a fertile environment in which to become reality.

 A Day of Shame