By now, the general public in the “God’s own country”, Kerala would have lost count of the hartals and strikes that have eaten into their normal working days, which throws their normal life out of gear. Even while writing this, some trade unions have given the clarion call of yet another strike is Kerala, which is just limping back to normalcy after going through the harrowing experience of a bus strike, which had paralyzed the public transport network only a few days back.
The last bus strike call, which was made by the bus owners association against fuel price hike, still remains fresh in the memory of the hapless populace. The only change this time is that the strike call was given by the employees demanding better wages and service conditions. Caught in between the cross fires of these two warring factions, the general public suffers the maximum.
No matter what the reason or motive of hartals, it is the unfortunate ordinary mortals that are victimized. However, holding the general public to ransom to attain their personal goals is not a healthy trend in any civilized society. The public has no umbrella organizations with political affiliations to take up their genuine causes and in the bargain gets a browbeating almost always.
It is high time that the knowledgeable people of Kerala muster enough courage to stand up against this malice with renewed vigor and zeal to make it a model state in its truest sense.
