Nepal, April 24 -- Please tell your political parties and unions in Nepal to stop calling strikes and to ban the banda culture forever," AS Panneerselvan, Executive Director of PANOS South Asia and an expert on South Asian affairs, told me in a meeting last week in Chennai. "Nepal's political parties are setting the wrong precedent by enforcing strikes and wreaking havoc on innocent people. Strikes will only weaken people. I think Nepalis need to think beyond this," he said.
Hasan Jahid Tusher, a senior Bangladeshi reporter of The Daily Star, also spoke out in anger while sharing "the nightmare" he had during his second visit to Nepal. "I don't want to remember those days. I was stuck midway between Pokhara and Kathmandu for more than a day while heading to the lake city along with my two other friends. You can't imagine how much I suffered. Isn't there any party or civil society leader in Nepal to take the initiative to end the banda culture?"
He told me he was happy to read news on Internet last year about the commitment by Nepal's political leaders to bring the strike culture to an end for the occasion of Nepal Tourism Year 2011. "But within weeks of this announcement, one of my Bangladeshi friends sent me an email from Kakadvitta saying that he couldn't enter Nepal due to a road strike enforced by a political group."
"What is this? Where Nepal is going?" His questions left me dumbfounded.
On one hand, it was good to learn of the love and care these outsiders showed for Nepal and its people. But on the other, I felt sad to find that bandas and strikes called in Nepal are hurting our neighbours too.
Call it a banda or a strike or a chakkajam, these names have become part of public life in Nepal. Political groups and unions call strikes at the drop of a hat, no matter how unreasonable their demands.
People are filled with indignation at the conditions during bandas. Chakkajams are announced in a jiffy. Ever since the banda culture started in Nepal (perhaps nobody knows the exact date), the country has lost billions of rupees with tourism, trade and business sectors being the worst-hit. The government and the private sector might not have the exact record of the extent of productivity losses and disturbances to public life bandas have caused. But according to the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), a day's banda costs Nepal Rs 100 million. In 2009, the country saw 120 bandas, resulting in a loss of a whopping Rs 120 billion. Nepal lost many productive working days through strikes and shutdowns, dealing a crippling blow to its ailing economy and severely denting the tourism industry.
The banda culture, whose only aim is to gridlock normal life, is a highly disruptive activity in Nepal. Bandas do no good to anybody and debilitate the country both in terms of growth and image. If the present trend in Nepali politics continues, Nepal will see more bandas and strikes. Rather than representing the simmering discontent of large masses, strikes are being organised to serve the interest of certain political groups. In Kathmandu, leaders, instead of reining in their sister organisations, watch scenes on television of their cadres blockading roads in remote districts in amazement; they think strikes are a tool to further their party's interest.
Our leaders seem to have a penchant for the banda culture even though they are well aware of people's utter hatred of strikes. For them, bandas are lawful in the name of people's right to protest. But they don't bother to acknowledge the inconvenience their parties' strikes have on the common people.
During my interaction with some South Asian scholars and journalists, they told me Nepal's parties and trade unions are renowned for being confrontational. They feel that organising strikes is innate to the nature of Nepal's parties and their cadres. "Strikes are debilitating Nepal's economic prospects," the Bangladeshi journalist said. "I don't know how Nepal's industries and factories, already ruined by 12-hours of daily load-shedding and donation terror, have been staying afloat amid strikes."
Any type of banda (transport, market, educational, among others) disrupts normal life and destroys the county's prospect of social and economic growth. Unfortunately, there has not been a sustained campaign against strikes in the country. Some districts and areas were declared banda-free zones, but nothing has changed.
It is not that Nepalis have never retaliated agianst strikes and worked towards eradicating the banda culture. There have been sustained efforts and protests against this social disease in some parts of the country. However, they all died before kicking in because people let the political leaders sway their opinion.
Why resort to violent bandas when peaceful demonstrations and systematic rallies can be organised? In no way can the logic behind bandas be justified. Bandas are not the last resort. There are several means to express resentment or protest something. Peaceful, non-aggressive demonstrations or systematic rallies are some alternatives. As bandas serve no purpose other than disrupting normal life, on what moral ground can political parties, ethnic organisations, professional bodies and just about anyone organise strikes?
A strong non-political anti-banda movement might be the answer. But the moot question is: Are the common people so fed up that they are ready to fight against this culture that has been exhausting the growth and tarnishing the image of Nepal tooth and nail.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from EKantipur.com.
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