During the recent & first bandh called suddenly on Jan 17th in Nagaland, our ongoing work had to be postponed causing multiple inconveniences for us & our customers.
After experiencing first hand the miseries & inconveniences of the bandh culture, the long suffering people & State Governments of Manipur, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh have been raising their voices and now plan to do away with the bandh through legislative, law, & other means. Finance & economy are wasted due to loss of working hours, wasting time, loss of agri & food products [eg Dimapur loss of several crores in transaction - Nagaland Post, Jan 18], many people become lazier, & develop a negative mentality. Thereby putting ourselves & our slow progress / development in the backward direction instead of forward.
Should the involuntary bandh culture from India & neighboring States hamper & delay our work, cripple our people & economy? This alien culture which has caused untold miseries to innocent public of neighboring States seems to be taking hold even in this State. Hard working citizens and Christians of our land need to have a voice and debate whether this bandh culture has any positive impact for the public at large. A fair society needs freedom to express opinions, & show transparency. Because once this culture takes root in our democratic Naga society, any organization could now claim the right to declare a bandh any time.
Thankfully, we have a modern & forward thinking public in Nagaland, and groups/organizations may lose public support & sympathy if bandhs are being imposed involuntarily. Surely there ought to be better & ‘public friendly’ ways to protest one’s democratic & God given rights other than bandhs?
Khrieketouzo Pongener
