Monday, March 28, 2011

Bihar Pride?

On the heels of the 'glorious' celebration of Bihar Day, comes the news that 'irate' citizens at Bhagalpur  torched Mozhidpur power station and vandalised Vikramshila Express at Bhagalpur railway station to 'protest' the acute power crisis in the city on Saturday.
Evidently, these 'protests' are instigated by local politicians and goons. You set fire to a power station, damaging equipment and property to protest power shortage? How the blazes is power going to be restored if you, 'proud Biharis' shoot yourselves in the foot by burning down your own power sub-station, causing loss of property, and putting a hole in your own government's pocket?
What sort of 'patriotism' or'sub-nationalism' is an act of venting your 'anger' on a train at a railway station? Over the past few days, I have met several Biharis who called the State day celebrations a 'joke' and a waste of government money. 
The city witnessed several incidents in which peeved residents torched public vehicles, I read. Normal life was completely disrupted after residents, which included a sizeable number of women and children, blocked roads in every locality since last evening. They vent their ire by burning tyres, squatting on the roads and blocking them with household items to protest the power crisis.
What happened to non-violent, positive protests, or is all this Gandhian stuff just manufactured history?
 Is this the kind of  violent and destructive 'protest' that goes with the hype 'Proud Bihar', 'Hamara Bihar', 'Bihar land of Buddha', Bihar from where Gandhiji launched his satyagraha movement?

ON THE OTHER HAND
People living in the capital of Bihar (Patna) are fortunate to receive almost 20 hours of electricity a day. In Bhagalpur, the situation is grim. According to BSEB sources, of the total requirement of 60MW, Bhagalpur has been receiving only 1-7MW for the past one-and-a-half months.
The power crisis has hampered operations in the silk industry. JLNMC Hospital superintendent Binod Prasad expressed serious concern over the ongoing power crisis. “Due to the horrible situation, we have decided to close the hospital because patients have become the worst sufferers,” he said.
It's only after the  town went ballistic that the state government has 'ordered' that 30 MW per day should be provided to Bhagalpur.
So the message is: if you want the Bihar Government to act, then cause a riot, destroy public property, endanger lives?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

when you are non-violent and sit and wait for things to happen...nothing happens. Ifa baby cries and raises a tantrum then the mother feeds her milk.....it's so easy to preach.

Susie Q said...

A baby doesn't go around smashing up everything insde the house. Being non-violent doesn't mean sitting and waiting for nothing to happen.
It's so easy to dash of comments, Mr annonymous!
Frustration, of course, leads to violent acts, but in this don't you think narrow minded petty politics and goondaism is more the cause?

Unknown said...

it has been a trend for quite a long time. non violence peace protest always goes unnoticed. Even no one the media notices any such thing.You have to cry loud and create chaos to get noticed, which is done by the local political gangs, some of them call themselves students.