There is no such thing as a “successful” bandh. As the Supreme Court has observed, bandhs in India are hardly spontaneous expressions of protest against the misuse of power; they are announced, planned and enforced, indeed are themselves a major contemporary example of the misuse of power. Partisan squabbling on whether the all-

India bandh called on Thursday by the BJP and the VHP was truly successful should be seen in this light. Achieving excellence in intimidation, stone-throwing and train-stopping is not a suitable qualification for a party of government.

In West Bengal, Kolkata has become a city of bandhs and crisped buses. For the Left Front, of course, liberal democracy is technically but a way-station on the long march to glorious proletarian revolution: till that great red dawn, a spot of insurrectionary violence is not a problem, even if the bourgeois economy does not appreciate it. The BJP may similarly pride itself on being a cadre-based, ideologically-motivated party, but if it wishes to be seen as a responsible steward of the Indian economy, pointing its angry young men towards a juicily unburnt bus and giving them a gentle shove is not the way to go about it. The BJP ruled India for six years and currently rules several states; it claims it will advance modern economic reform; but it seems unaware of just how much images of club-wielding party workers, forcing small shops to down shutters, undermine its respectability.

A day given over to this extravagant display of thuggish political power will have cost thousands of crores. This is not output voluntarily sacrificed for a greater cause; this has been taken from an already struggling economy because a political party is searching for an issue. A political party which, it must be said, will either ride to power, or not, on the backs of those members of the urban entrepreneurial class and aspiring poor who will have been the hardest hit. These columns have already pointed out that taking up the issue of the Amarnath yatra in the first place, when all those involved are agreed that pilgrims must be provided for, and when the situation in the Valley appears to have been defused somewhat, is irresponsible; it demonstrates that the BJP is no less willing than the Congress to put temporary political calculation above the national interest. Now the BJP and its problem sibling have established that they are willing to sacrifice the interests of its core constituencies to such calculation as well.