Hate Hartals? What Can You and I Do?

We have now, almost quite unanimously, decided that most of us hate the antisocial and antiprogressive event of convenience celebrated very frequently by our scum politicians under different names such as hartal, bandh, roko, strike, panimudakku, etc. It does no good to ANY one in this state or country. And because of this single phenomenon, Kerala has stagnated and rotten.

So now what can we do? Clearly, at this stage, I am not in a position to go out and protest [or call a hartal against hartal as someone joked :)]. And I am not interested in filing a public interest litigation and adding to the long list of petitions against hartals.

I am going to list a few of my ideas against hartals and banhds. I welcome all our readers to contribute to this post and add your suggestions. All reasonable, sensible, and practical ideas and suggestions will be compiled and sent to all leading newspapers in Kerala/ India. (jokes are welcome, but wont make it to the final list) You can choose to give your real name or a nickname (even if you dont have a blogger id), but preferably avoid anonymous comments.

My suggestions:

1. I have always believed in creating awareness and educating people. Whenever I get a chance, I speak about hartals and the loss they create to the state. I explain how only hard work can lead to progress. I also stress on the importance of working within the system. I tell all these things to whoever I can in Kerala - be it a driver, rickshaw-wala, shopkeeper, policeman, businessman, or engineer. Giving such perspective can make them think, and realize themselves. And in turn, they will spread the good word to many others (hopefully). So my first suggestion is to:

"Spread the word against hartals and its ill-effects to everyone you come across"

2. For those of you with considerable local clout, please encourage the local decision makers and people to work against hartals and strikes. I have read about one or two towns in Kerala that have people working together against these political games, and remain open during hartals. If this can become a mass movement, and spread across Kerala, then Kerala will surely make progress, and more importantly, it will cut our wily politicians to size.

"Encourage pockets of community activity against hartals"

3. Another longer term action that we can take is to stop voting for parties/ leaders that encourage hartals. Obviously, that would mean that we will not be able to vote. But the idea is to create an awareness among the scumbag politicians that hartals and bandhs will only earn negative points for them. Hopefully its some discouragement for them.

"Vote out politicians and parties that encourage hartals and bandhs"


More suggestions and action points are most welcome.

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