Why Buddha is against bandhs

In fact, if the recent nationwide bandh called by the Left trade unions was a “success”, it was so basically in West Bengal and the Left-ruled Kerala.

In 2008, West Bengal has seen five state-wide bandhs, of them three called by the Left — the Forward Bloc, the Left Front and the CPI(M)’s labour wing CITU. If the Forward Bloc called a bandh in the wake of the police firing on its supporters in Dinhata, the CPI(M) announced a bandh to protest against the arrest of its Hooghly leader Suhrid Dutta in the Tapasi Mallik murder case of Singur, while there have been several bandhs on the fuel price hike.

Each bandh has paralysed city life. Vehicular transport went off roads, train services were severely disrupted, shops downed shutters all through the day and even public offices registered poor attendance. Each bandh, there were calls for keeping Information Technology — the sunrise sector — out. But during each bandh the functioning of these 24X7 service providers has been affected.

In 2006, there were around five bandhs in West Bengal, with at least three being scheduled in December 2006. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had to suffer the ignominy of seeing US Ambassador David Mulford leave the city on November 30 to avoid the first bandh on December 1. This was followed by the news that a high-level Romanian trade team had cancelled its December 6, 2006, programme.

The recurring bandhs take a heavy toll on the state’s economy. According to estimates of the chambers of commerce, the state suffers a loss of around Rs 10,000 crore on each bandh it observes.

The Calcutta High Court has in the past expressed helplessness in executing its own orders for the lack of an administrative machinery. In July 2004, for instance, a division bench of former acting chief justice A Roy and Justice A K Mitra said “the judiciary is impotent as far as bandh is concerned and the court has no administrative authority to take action against bandh supporters”.

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