During my brief stint at Manipur I observed that once into Manipur you can’t plan in advance when you can leave Manipur and once out of it you are not sure when you will be able to return to Manipur because of ‘Bandhs’ which are like the weather of Ziro during this month – you never know when there will be rain. And to go by the people of Manipur, the state has earned the sobriquet of “Bandhpur”.
Coming back to our state, it seems we Arunachali’s are also following the Manipur’s way. The ‘Bandh’ seems to have become the mantra to register your protest about anything-be it lottery imbroglio, power cuts and the most recent- to force resignation of Minister on morale ground. And in doing so, let the common people be damned, the student community, which is the future of state, be damned-this was what the Papum Pare District Youth Welfare Society (PPDYWS) exactly did, by calling 10 hr Capital ‘Bandh’ on 1st of March, incidentally when C.B.S.E. exam began, to force the UD Minister Nabam Tuki, to step down from the Post on morale ground.
Here, what I couldn’t understand was, why the PPDYWS resorted to Bandh Call when PIL was filed at Guwahati High Court against the alleged involvement of UD Minister in corrupt practices and that too when thousands of students in the twin Capital City of Naharlagun and Itanagar were to sit for their Board Exams. Why was the hurry? Shouldn’t they have waited for the law to take its own course? Or even if they wanted the Minister to step down from the post on morale ground, wasn’t there other form of protest like sit-in-dharna or taking out peaceful procession etc. Or was there any vested interest of certain section of people? (BTW..how do you justify taking entire population to ransom for fulfilment of interests of certain section of people?)
The cartoons are really cute !the dialogue captions were a bit too tiny to read without the picture being enlarged . A bandh against the bandh culture ! you have accurately highlighted the absurdity of bandh culture .I feel its largely the influence from neighbouring states that has infected the Arunachalis as well .It is hard to tell whether Assam or Manipur competes for the dubious honour of being the record bandh holder .It was fine during the British rule and Gandhi era but the British have long gone and now its either political aspirants or organizations that are misusing this power to further their own selfish aim without any kind of consideration for the public in general.