Bengal Bandh: No matter what the TMC govt says, September 26 was not an ordinary day

For Bengal, September 26 was not an ordinary day. No matter how hard the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government tried to make it seem like one.

Boarding a bus in Kolkata on ordinary days is harrowing. One’s acrobatic skills are under test. Travelling is even worse — chock-a-bloc traffic, political processions, stormy unscheduled street protests, sometimes even flyovers collapsing out of the blue.

The woes are never-ending. 

Burning issue: The bandh was called by the BJP. Naturally, the TMC did its best to foil it. (Photo: ANI)

If we take this to be the benchmark of normalcy, Wednesday was anything but normal.

Unlike other days, passengers boarding a bus at Howrah were treated to sandesh and rosogolla for mustering up the courage to travel on a bandh day, with both the BJP — which called the bandh — and the ruling TMC — which was bent on thwarting the bandh — flexing their muscles.

Of course, it is rare to see political dadas, with packets of sweets in hand and a smile pasted on their face, helping commuters board buses and take their seats.

If the sweets were a prize for the “risk” that ordinary people had taken by stepping out on a bandh day, commuters deserve tonnes of candies and what-not every day, for putting their lives in danger due to reckless bus driving and other traffic hazards.

In fact, Wednesday was rather a pleasant day to step out on.

Kolkata looked and felt different. The air was less polluted, the roads less choked, thanks to the absence of private vehicles.

In the course of a ‘normal’ day, one does not see bus depots packed with buses, all ready to go. Never mind if there are no passengers to take anywhere. Never mind if the buses are just moving in circles, to prove the point that everything is ‘normal’.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, in the middle of her Europe tour, had thundered that the 12-hour bandh called by the BJP had to be foiled at all costs.

The CM’s wish is a command, and the administration worked in earnest to fulfill it.

The result: fleets of buses on roads, in fact, their numbers and strength outnumbering the passengers. Forget the fuel consumption and the futile trips, the blast of attacks they have to brave and are braving. They are on the streets as obedient foot soldiers. There are official reports of eight buses being vandalised and torched. The unofficial figure could be higher — but who’s bothered?

Silent victims: The buses had to bear the brunt of the government's insistence on 'normalcy'. (Photo: ANI) 

The visibility of the vehicles has served the purpose — at the end of the day, the official bulletin will dub the BJP bandh a flop show, a failure. The government has taken the strongest action to stop it and make it look like an ordinary day.

However, the government had to take some extraordinary measures to manage this show of ordinariness.

The education minister, Partha Chatterjee, unlike any ‘ordinary’ day, warned schools, colleges and universities of facing the stick for not staying open on the bandh day. Government employees were also threatened with a pay cut — deduction of three days’ salary — if they stayed at home on the bandh day, even if it was out of concern for personal safety, and not to show solidarity and support to the saffron party.

Obviously, such things never happen on ordinary days.       

In the midst of all this, where were the citizens? Battling the Hamletian dilemma — to be or not to be (with the bandh), regardless of any political preference.

After all, it was anything but an ordinary day.    

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