Editorial
Hartal Compensation
When pragmatism takes hold of a society, traditions, even the most deep-rooted ones, no longer remain unchallenged. In a remarkable move Ernakulam Chamber of Commerce, a business body of the south Indian state of Kerala better known for its high literacy rate and fish haul, recently filed a petition with a court seeking its verdict on wild-cat strikes, a disruptive syndrome the state had come to be plagued with for quite some time.
Significantly, the Court has given a legal seal on the petition in the affirmative spelling out what we all utter without seeming to realise "... no political party or organisation can claim that it is entitled to paralyse industry and commerce and prevent citizens from exercising their fundamental rights". They have to pay compensation for the loses incurred in a hartal if they had called for one.
The verdict is not an absolute one as it can be challenged at a higher court. But the fact of the matter is strike or hartal once known as such a potent force to press home demands in these part of the world since the Gandhian days has finally come under critical light in the land of its genesis. Apparently, the thought of ensuring progress has got the better of sentiment and convenience.
Kerala is not very far from Bangladesh from any conceivable context. But how come are we so far behind at the conceptual level? When will the political leaders of this country wed their patriotism to a benevolent pragmatism to bury hartal as a colonial spectre once for all?
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