Say No to Bandh Culture!!

Guwahati: The people of Assam is facing a hard time due to frequent bandh called up by different organization to met their demand.  Bandh created fear physiques among the peoples of Assam.   Now, bandh is like a culture in Assam and the local people observed the bandh as a holiday. Frequent bandhs in Assam has crippled down the state’s economy.  The bandh callers fail to realize and appreciate the consequential ill effects of the bandh in social life.

The 48-hour Assam bandh called by Janagosthiyo Oikya Mancha from Monday 5am paralysed normal life in the state. The Mancha, a forum of six organisations representing the six communities of the state which have been demanding Scheduled Tribe status, had called the bandh to protest against the delay in submission of report by the committee constituted by the Centre to recommend the modalities for granting ST status to these communities. In some parts of Assam the bandh demonstrators burnt tyres on road.

The bandh demonstrators forced people to shut down their shops and warned people from coming out of their homes.  “When the people will realized that bandh cannot solve any problem but it will give rise to many problems. Bandh will drive back the state into backwardness. Time has come not to support the bandh and end the bandh culture in Assam,’’ a Dibrugarh based social activist said.

In the year 2010, Gawahati High court declared bandhs “illegal and unconstitutional” as these violate the citizens fundamental rights. The order was passed by a division bench comprising chief justice chelameswar and justice Arun Chandra upadhyay in the light of a 1997 supreme court order a Kerala High Court judgment declaring Bandh “illegal’’.

Many organizations in Assam, mostly students’ organization, feel that the best way to draw the government’s attention towards or protest against any government move by calling bandh. In Assam the whole generation has grown up under the shadow of bandhs called by the united liberation front of Assam (ULFA) and still now the rebel group called bandh during Republic day and Independence day.