Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Our fascination with bandhs/strikes

Bandhs aka strikes seem to be the way of life out here in our great country. If someone from a union is fired there is band. If a minister dies or is put in jail there is bandh. If a political party is in the minority it seems duty bound to call a few bandhs during their tenure in opposition. If India loses a pesky cricket game there is a commotion. And now this nuisance about actors dying and bandhs. What is going on with us? Heck I think soon there will be bandhs when people fall sick.

It is good that we adore and respect people who we carve out to be idols for us in our lives. But what is the length to which our patronage to the same person goes. Are we not duty bound towards our nation and therein directly to our jobs to observe any such action of grief on our own time rather than have the phobia of being stoned by rowdy so-called fans of these same people and running away from our jobs?

If any of these people are worthy of being treated as stars/idols etc it is only because they performed their duty ie. did their jobs well throughout their lives without flinching or taking time off for free siestas. If people are truly fans of the same they should pay respect to the dead by going on with their jobs and hey if need be donating something to their local non-profit.

All that said there is much to be done if we want India to be a truly global place and labour reforms seems to be topmost on the agenda. Unionisation is killing the economic progress made by the country and getting a bad rep., especially for outsourcing derived business, throughout the world. Come on people we have nearly 20+ official state and central bank holidays combined. Then most organisations give a healthy addition of nearly 30 odd paid leaves. Do you think we are going to be able to compete in a flat world with this lethargic a workforce? I doubt it.

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