Enforced Bandhs – violation of fundamental rights
There is a difference between strikes and bandhs. Strikes are undertaken by employees who have genuine grievance against their employers – maybe on grounds of inadequate salary/bonus, bad/unsafe work environment, injustice to a member of the trade union etc. What are bandhs? Loosely defined “bandh” means closed in Hindi. Bandh in the Indian context means a form of political protest wherein the aggrieved political party declares a strike for a day, either in a city, State or the entire country. It could be a “Mumbai bandh”, “Maharashtra bandh” or “Bharat bandh” for whatever grounds the party maybe protesting. When a “bandh” is declared by a political party, the public is expected to sit at home and offices, business establishments, shops and public transport are supposed to be shut an inoperative. “Bandhs” are supposed to be a powerful means of civil disobedience. Because this form of protest has a huge impact on the local community, bandhs as a form of political protest are feared by t...