I have lost count of the number of hartals that were called since I started Zyxware. Hartals affects the normal life of the common man. It is as if he is totally under the power of the political leaders. Yet it is this common man who possesses the power to defeat a hartal; but he does not; why? I can't stand this injustice and I have decided to act, and I have acted and the result is http://www.boycotthartal.org.
A system of protesting popularized by one of the greatest leaders of the millennia is being misused by the political parties of today for their own vested interests. I respect the right of every human being to protest against anything that they feel they need to protest against. But at the same time all of us have a right to not join a protest which we are not interested in. Forcing us to join it is akin to violation of my fundamental right. if the government is not going to do anything to grant me my fundamental right then I have to take steps to ensure that myself.
We, at Zyxware, have developed a site dedicated to fight for our freedom to not protest. We bring before you - http://www.boycotthartal.org. It is a portal that is going to bring together concerned citizens of our motherland who are fed up with all these hartals and who wish to put a stop to this. Come join us and fight against the misuse of this way of protest by the political parties.
Anoop, I would like to know about your experience. That is, if you want to run your company on a typical hartal day, are you able to do it? Is it that your company located in some place where it could attract the hartal supporters? Or is it that it affects the functioning of the company in terms of transportation of people, clients, goods, closed offices etc?
I have always opened on all hartal days. Yes it is true that my office is in a lane and not directly visible from the road. Hartals affect our operations in that it creates difficulty in our staff reaching our offices and additionally there wouldn't be any customers visiting us on hartal days.
Being affected by harthal has become, to some extent, a matter of choice. The recent harthal from the VHP is a good example. Cities like Chennai and Bombay (a strong hold of the VHP) remained almost untouched. I think it is the innate laziness in a average malayali that make these harthals a success. Employees here, to their great delight, see it as another day off from work! The only people who complain are the ones who get stranded at bus stops or outside of railways stations. These are the ones that the we see in the news channels being interviewed and it therefore creates the impression that the average malayali is finding it a nuisance.
What a waste of productive time for the state. Time to act against it.
Anand,
You have pointed out the real reason why hartals succeed in Kerala. It is the general apathy and laziness among the general public. But if we start making a difference then we could possibly tip the balance. I think people generally like running with the crowd
Anoop
Post new comment