The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Saturday 2 March 2013

FEBRUARY 2013 GENERAL STRIKE OR THE ‘BHARAT BANDH’: THE UNCIVIL CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE (III)

Continued from:
FEBRUARY 2013 GENERAL STRIKE OR THE ‘BHARAT BANDH’: THE UNCIVIL CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE (II)
http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/03/february-2013-general-strike-or-bharat.html










It is well known by now that when the ‘Bandhs’ are called by the political parties or when the election time is not near, the ruling political group doesn’t care much about it.

The ‘Bharat Bandh’ on May 31, 2012 didn’t see the prime minister appealing the concerned parties to call-off the ‘Bandh’. Similar was the story during the July 5, 2012 ‘Bharat Bandh’. The prime minister didn’t make any appeal even during the September 20, 2012 ‘Bharat Bandh’.

Then, elections were still pretty far away.

During this ‘Bharat Bandh’, it was the time, to seriously think about the elections which are just some quarters away. So, even if there was not any immediate spark, the government was looking at it with watchful eyes.

Also, the call this time was not by the mainstream political opposition. Involvement of the central trade unions as well as the banking and transportation unions, which represent a considerable segment of the population, was enough to make the government feel nervous in case the ‘Bandh’ got a widespread support.

And so, we had, our comfortably-numb prime minister appealing the trade unions to call-off the strike.

But the violence during the ‘Bandh’ gave the government the necessary counter-points to hit back and questioning the authority and morality of the ‘Bandh’, two factors a must for any civil disobedience movement – authority of non-violence and morality of rightfulness – as the Mahatma has shown the way – as we saw in the massive public protests during the anti-corruption movement called by Anna Hazare or the leaderless massive but peaceful civil protests against the Delhi gangrape of December 16, 2012.

These movements were active and provocative enough to awaken millions and bring an arrogant government to the talking table. Whatever has been the outcome; there were moments when millions felt it was their duty to be the part of the protests to raise the voice against the System and the systemic corruption.

This ‘Bharat Bandh’ or to say any other in the recent past, has been an utter failure on being active and provocative to motivate and mobilize masses for a cause because they were not peaceful and lacked in moral authority.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/