Jammu, July 29: Yet another call for bandh, yet another spell of chaos, inconvenience and hardships for the common man of Jammu. Is this all really for the benefit of the common man who is put to hardship by the so called champions of the welfare of common man on street? Ask anybody who gets stuck during Bandh call how it feels and he would pour his heart out telling you how these calls for his so called welfare turns out to be a nightmare for him as he has to pay the price to satisfy the ego of a few people outwitting each other to project themselves as leaders of the masses.
Jammuites have to deal with another spell of such bandh calls for the ongoing All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Jammu row which is threatening to turn into a major controversy not only between the two regions of the state but also between the BJP and the opposition in Jammu.
The question arises that is there any need to call for Jammu bandh and put people to hardships during this scorching summer and will it really solve the problem or for that matter get the AIIMS to Jammu?
The answer is a big No because such decisions are policy decisions which are taken at the highest level considering all pros and cons of the issue and if AIIMS has to come to Jammu or setup in Kashmir no bandh call can change the decisions of the powers that be.
What these calls are doing is nothing but to create more problems for the common man and divide people on regional and communal lines even as it is an established fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not change his stance on such bandh calls and if he has decided something the bandh calls or hartals would hardly convince him to change his mind.
However what needs to be pondered is that people must rise against such politics and force the politicians to stop this politics of bandhs’ in the state whether in Jammu or Kashmir as the state has already lost too much on account of terrorism and turmoil and needs smooth working conditions to improve the lot of the people.
Jammu has witnessed the damage that Kashmir has suffered due to terrorism and hartals for the past more than twenty five years and its leadership must act wise and not plunge into such politics of hartals which only brings chaos, economic and social decline in the society.
People get fed-up with the continuous hartals and bandhs resulting in their lack of interest for such sensitive issues thus hurting the real issue very badly.
As far as AIIMs in Jammu is concerned it is a genuine demand but to get it back to Jammu needs some practical result oriented steps instead of calling for bandhs and other things which only put common people to hardships while the powers that be remain insensitive to the real issue.
This fact can be gauged from the statements of AIIMS CC which says that despite many days of chain hunger strike not a single government representative has come to inquire about the issues indicating that to move the government one needs to change the strategy and not stick to old customs of protest.
It would have been better if the AIIMS CC finds some innovative steps to pressurize the government to achieve its goal rather than resorting to age old tactics that only result in huge problems for the common people and long process to get things done.
It is hoped that all the people belonging to all the political parties in the state put their heads together to find some innovative solutions to pressurize the government to get things done and do away with these old fashioned hartal and bandh calls in future.
The people on their own must come out against all such policies and stop the politics of Bandh calls for ever.