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Hartals & people’s apathy
TITUS JOHN
“The government could not be blamed if people stay put during hartals. They are simply staying indoors for safety and security, enjoying a self-declared holiday.” The affidavit filed by the Kerala government in a contempt of court case related to hartals pointed a finger at the people for their apathy.
The affidavit reminded me of a comment made by an exasperated police constable over a traffic violation some years ago. One evening a friend of mine on an Enfield motorcycle was flagged down by policemen near Koudiar junction in Tiruvananthapuram. He was immediately booked for not holding a valid licence and was asked to bring the motorcycle to the Museum police station.
The sub-inspector assigned a constable for the job. The rest of the police party soon left for the station in the police jeep. Left with the task of taking both bike and man to the station (he did not know how to ride), the constable asked my friend to ride the motorcycle to the station and he would be the pillion. My friend refused saying that since he had no driving licence he was not going to ride the bike and break the law again; if the police man wanted to push the bike to the station, he was free to do so. My friend would just walk along. It was getting dark and the police station was over a kilometre away. The poor constable tried his best to coax my friend into riding the bike but he would not oblige. Obviously my friend was taking the constable for a ride.
The exasperated constable, left to push the heavy bike all the way to the station, finally made a comment: “Sir, would someone other than one like you have stopped the bike when these fools had waved you down? You should have just driven away. Nothing would have happened.”
Some parallels
It is an irony that there is a bit of bitter truth and some parallels in this story and the affidavit. Just like what the police constable had suggested, if we all had gone on with our jobs as usual on hartal days, nothing would have happened. The people of Kerala should take the government affidavit as a challenge and ignore these hartal calls hereafter.
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