When strikes cause strokes…

Kerala has doomed to a state when one day in a week is a strike. Are the organizers conduct strikes to safeguard the citizens’ rights or to deny them? Aren’t the leftists and rightists of this land equally deny the rights of people? A thought on the issue

Rather than calling my land as God’s own country, I would call it as a Land of strikes. Each day in Kerala dawns with a news of strike or with a possibility of a strike in the nearby days. The method of organizing strikes to get ones state-defined, judicial rights is definitely good and appreciative, as this attracts attention from the authorities and forces them to take a course of action at the earliest. But, Kerala degrades its value by calling for strikes every now and then. Currently, Kerala organizes strikes for things we cannot call rightful.

Today, private bus association had called for an indefinite strike, which means nobody knows when it will end. This was to protest against Motor Vehicle Department’s (MVD) direction to install speed governors on heavy vehicles (especially on private buses). When there are frequent accidents (two days before, an accident in Malappuram district in Kerala claimed the lives of 13 children) and complaints of over speeding, there is no harm or injustice in MVD’s direction to install speed governors. This is one possible solution to bring safety to the lives of citizens in Kerala, which include the lives of private bus employees too. MVD has launched extensive checking of buses and have cancelled the permits of 300 vehicles, which were illegally on road. Nobody can blame MVD for taking action against vehicles which did not oblige law.

The purpose of law is to bring stability in the society, by punishing the wrong doers and guiding them to the right path. Laws are meant for the well-being of human beings. Why do the people in Kerala or more precisely, the strike organizers in Kerala refuse to understand this simple fact? Perhaps, through organizing strikes, people think that they are executing their ‘right’. It is true, but your rights should not restrict or create hindrance to the lives of others. What is being forgotten here is that every person in this land has an equal right.

As a citizen, a person has the right to travel and voice his opinion on issues. He may not support the strike because that goes against his social policy. The strike organisers have no rights to hurt him by pelting stones or by stopping him from going to work. To say, the strike against MVDs on the issue of speed governor installation is a matter that was hardly supported by any person in Kerala. The people do not wanted to sit at home to support the strike and this was evident when the roads were busier than the usual days. A strike can be only called successful when it receives the support of the masses. It is a method of protest to raise the voice of all, not of one or two.

In fact, the matter what Kerala witness now is a form of ‘left approach’ that projects a rights-based approach. Rights-based approach is one of the best moves to the development. It can stop the bourgeois attitude of power and dominance, as well as stop the means-based approach. But, when this left approach becomes extreme, it harms the society by slowly stooping down to the power and dominance.

To elaborate, Kerala believes in the fad of union formations. This unions or associations are believed to give unlimited power to the people. It is true that the unions prevent the weak in the society from getting exploited. But, what if the strengths of unions are ever increasing? It definitely creates another hierarchy and affects the stability. Kerala is an example of this scenario. ‘Unity gives strength’, but too much of strength creates a greed of power. This greed generates the attitude of dominance over the weak. This dominance are regularly seen when a group of small people called “strike organisers” stops the vehicles from passing by or prevents the shops from opening on a strike day.

Hence, Kerala depicts an interesting picture where the leftists and rightists get narrowed to the same path at one point. The latter already supports a means based approach, by forgetting the rights of people. In turn, the former opposes the latter through union formation and various protests to safeguard the rights. Slowly and steadily, leftists too gain power and they began regulating people, denying the rights of the people. Overall, be it the rightists or the leftists, both deny the rights of the people living peacefully.

Kerala is an exemplification to every land who wishes they had a left approach of development. The land not just shows the benefits of the left approach, but it also shows what happens when the left approach crosses the extreme.