Daily Post 1543
ONE FOR THE ROAD
What one for the road means is very difficult to fathom out. For the people on wet mode it can mean hospitality, warmth or it can negatively mean helping you in losing your balance. The end result then is unknown and nobody knows when one would come out of induced stupor. The interesting part is the road is never in question or becomes an issue. This time around the road or roads are the issue. All roads leading to the national capital and conversely taking you out of the national capital. Capital under seize is no more an epithet, it is a stark reality, piercing right into your eyes. It would be unnecessary to state the critical need of road transport and it smooth functioning for literally anything and everything.
Still we are off roads for last over three weeks, both literally, commercially and metaphorically. Centuries back what Sher Shah Suri did with the Grand Trunk Road is what we have brought a standstill now. Inconvenience apart, the economic well-being of the community and city / states goes for a six. It is strange that the impacts of this blockade in economic terms has started gaining pre-eminence only in the last two days. If blockade was taken as a traffic issue, the less said the better. If the total fall out is still a matter of conjecture, the resolution will certainly become a matter of imagination. Whether the farm laws are flawed or not is a different story, the law of the land should prevail for the other citizens – freedom of movement, of trade etc.
For this reason blockade of any national highway or any important road even within a city; where diversions were available, was treated as a nightmare for the traffic and law enforcement agencies. It was treated as a non-professional negligent handling of an emerging situation and even dereliction of duty. As a logical corollary, it meant the same of the respective governments as well. Large chunks of the population cannot be denied basic rights leave aside ease of living and ease of business. That is the reason we have places renowned for public protests in every city. India Against Corruption agitation is a case in point.
A road and in this case so many roads cannot become camps of the medieval age type. Roads cannot be handed over to anybody but for it’s legal use. No tolerance on this count has to be the norm. Discussion, deliberations, draft bill, passage through the legislature fulfilling the process in spirit too, President’s assent and implementation as mandated will have to be the norm. This would stop such issues to crop up in future. Democracy of mind has to happen before democracy through law and one-upmanship. Time to sort out this blockade and move to a different trajectory, that this sordid saga of extreme inconvenience is never repeated.
USE OF ALL PUBLIC UTILITIES FOR THE PURPOSES MEANT HAS TO BE ENSURED.
Sanjay Sahay